I hate how they use the internet to get people killed or harm them. It really gives me that vibe of obnoxious, unforgiving, mobbing Chinese mentality. There is no trial, they will simply stone the person to death if they get the chance. I despise it.

>>7490
What the fuck Baidu set up a subforum dedicated to that one guy? I understand people wanting to fuck him up, I'd probably be in that lynchmob myself but holy hell BAIDU set up a place for that?

For those unaware, Baidu Tiera functions as a search engine, as an anonymous textboard (like 4chan and 2chan) and it allows images and music to be uploaded, to it has a imageboard and file hosting aspect to it. It's one of the most popular chinese internet sites.

Re. the article, I've seen an older article on the human flesh search engine phenomon which mentioned the Siuchan earthquake girl - but it only said she made the video saying more should've died. This article gives more context to what happened.

It's not new and not surprising, I remember the example of 'Dog Shit Girl' which they referenced for South Korea - and of course, the utter racist moralfaggotry that the english-language larger #chan sites degenerated into in the end. Well moralfaggotry in general

>>7493
the older article was also posted on the New York Times website as well I think.

>>7490
Also, I found it funny how those people said they were threatening to pull a human flesh search engine on her. It reminded me of somethingawful members threatening to pull a 'helldump' on members who pissed off the ruling cliques on that hellhole.

Also the guy who emailed/imed her telling her to just concede - reminded me also of stuff on somethingawful, as well as that shitty science-fiction forum stardestroyer.net where the forum users are complete shits.

>>7492
In the chinese context, I'd say that's them being 'righteous' and 'honorable' and setting things rights. Then again in the US context you'd see similar words, just not having them used in the Confucian sense - instead probably having some slight christian references ("spawn of satan" or "go back to hell") as well as some animation/tv/media references (The Punisher works well in that context, given this vigilantism - as well as Batman - and also see those people who become "reallife superheroes")

Reminds me of SA and 4chan.

There's a reason we have trials first. Fucking teenagers.

The ability to track individuals down is nothing new, but with this kind of group mentality the potential is terrifying. With large groups online hunting down people who offend them and ruining their lives, there's nothing stopping them from doing it to anyone for any reason, so long as the group agrees. Such as, for example, "amateur pornography makers, Chinese citizens who are perceived as unpatriotic, journalists who urge a moderate stance on Tibet". With upstanding, vigilant citizens like that, the government won't have to lift a finger to get their people into line or make sure their journalists report the "correct" version of the news.

There's nothing stopping it from happening in America, or anywhere else for that matter. And not just to women who stomp kittens to death or cheating husbands who drive their wives to suicide. Did neighbor X order some questionable manga from overseas that accidentally got dropped at your door instead? He's a pedo - let's tell the internet and make sure he loses his job and never works again. Does a journalist have some unorthodox political views? Apparently the Chinese are already ahead of us on that one. Why even stop there? Make something up about someone you don't like and slap together some "evidence". Once a Google search for his name is paired up on the first page with "pedophile" or "dogfucker", you've won. Hell, it's happened already, probably many times over.

Maybe those examples seem a little far-fetched, but the technology's been there for a while already, and the potential for abuse is enormous. I had exactly the same feeling when the whole Anonymous thing started.

>>7496
>>Maybe those examples seem a little far-fetched, but the technology's been there for a while already, and the potential for abuse is enormous.

As you said, it's happened many times before in the english speaking internet.

EncylopediaDramatica was notorious for unprovoked flame wars and lynch mobs, several people pointed out how some people did PA requests and phrased it as 'for the lulz' on ED and /b/ and made up some bullshit and made their enemies a target. You see that with the Jessi Slaughter bullshit - those vids she made were directed to the enemy she was fighting on stickydrama before whoever it was had their friends manipulate things and say that she was talking about *chan. I remember some /49k/ threas on 4chan (back then it was good; you should be able to find them on the 4chanarchive site) that provided examples and personal statements regarding ED looking for targets and digging up dox on them. I also know some people from wrongplanet forums who were similar.

I know a guy who lost some factional bullshit power struggle on 4chan /cgl/ with the mos and got his shit doxed and he harassed and permab& from the board.

I also know a pedophile who was outed by some anti-pedo vigilante group and got V& as a result. He revealed too much info on him on a forum or something, and got ensnared as a result of that when the wikisposure guys (Theyre affiliated with perverted-justive) dug up shit on him and attacked him.

>>7497
Well at least with the Chinese they have some ethical reason to do it (even though the punishment is WAY too heavyhanded), ED/Anonymous just seems to lynch people who haven't even done anything wrong, for instance that Jessi Slaughter girl and CWC..

I must be the only person on the board who absolutely loves this. I think it's pretty awesome that so many people are willing to go to such lengths to fucking ruin someone over relatively minor shit.

>>7506
It's weird. I think it's ridiculous and deplorable, but there's something about it like you said.

>>7506
No, you're probably not the only sociopath on this board.

And I must be the only person who have no fucking clue what's going on. Obviously I'd be wiser by reading the article, but looking at these comments, I'll opt not to. Ignorance can be bliss.

>>7495
SA is what taught me the very important lesson of never revealing personal info on the internet to anyone, after seeing what they did to some people

>>7497
>I know a guy who lost some factional bullshit power struggle on 4chan /cgl/ with the mos and got his shit doxed and he harassed and permab& from the board.

Can you tell us more about it?

>>7516

Quite frankly, he deserved it for posting that without 100% anonymity.

>doxed
That's exactly what I'm afraid of.

>>7525
Oh god, please no.
Also, I miss the days when the most "Anonymous" would do was have fun blocking imaginary pools.

>>7529
What's stopping you?

And there are sometimes when anon finds underage camwhores and calls their parents to let them know what their little princess is getting up to.

Eh.

>>7490
I'm terrified by this. Even more so when the case is as >>7503 said, when people do this because they think someone is being "wrong." First thing is, punishing criminals is not their job, they don't have the right to do it. Second thing is, most of the time the person who is targeted by this is not a criminal, but simply someone who is thinking or behaving differently than the targeter group. What corcerns me here is that outcasts are driven out once more, and out of all places, they're losing internet which is ultimately an utopia for people who cannot express themselves or live comfortably in real life.

I go online to have a place where I can take it easy. But noo, people have to and will shit this up too. After all, how can they be reasonable and mind their own business.

Post edited on 28th May 2011, 1:59am

>>7558
I see no problem with it when they punish criminals that would otherwise get away Scott free.
like a superhero, they take the law into their own hands when the law is powerless to stop people who are clearly doing something wrong, like the lady in the article OP linked that filmed herself stomping kittens to death, the cops never would have done anything.

>>7558
>First thing is, punishing criminals is not their job, they don't have the right to do it.

The law exists to punish people for going against public morals and whatnot. Who better to punish these criminals than the collective will of the people themselves? Sometimes they can get a little carried away, but that simply happens when you get a large amount of people together.

Like it or not, the internet is not a complete bastion of anonymity and a place to "hang out." To do and be whatever you want. Not anymore.

>>7560
>The law exists to punish people for going against public morals and whatnot.
Not entirely true. As an example, being unpatriotic is certainly against general morals, in my country or in China at least if we go by the article. And I don't have any reason to think it's all that different in somewhere else. But we don't see people going to jail for being unpatriotic now, do we?

>Who better to punish these criminals than the collective will of the people themselves?
On the contrary, I think the collective will of people is probably the worst option there is. When people get caught up in group mentality, more than often they cannot comprehend the consequences of their actions. Not to mention, they can be easily manipulated.

This doesn't happen always, or even often for that matter, but a while back a group of people got publicly lynched here for drinking alcohol in streets. -Stupid islamic savages- I'm not entirely sure, but drinking alcohol in streets is probably against the laws. But come on, think for a while, it's obvious that they didn't deserve and shouldn't have gotten such treatment. It's a perfect example of how far things can go when a bunch of people put theirselves in place of law. What we are discussing is not all that different from witch hunts during the middle age. It all comes down to people not minding their own business, which is everything wrong with this world and soceity.

>Like it or not, the internet is not a complete bastion of anonymity and a place to "hang out." To do and be whatever you want. Not anymore.
This makes me a sad man.

>>7516
I've always thought this was made up, because "Redfox" turns up more than two million results on Google. There's no way anyone could have done such a thing, unless they had A LOT of time. Always make sure that you never use the same name more than once. These days, it's nearly impossible to use a common alias that isn't Anonymous.

I am more than certain that some people would have ruined my life had I continuously left traces to things like old forum accounts. Times have changed, and you can't trust anyone anymore. Everything you post on 4chan is now recorded with Google or other sort of archive forever.

I'm actually paranoid enough that I rename the pictures I post with constantly, so that nobody notices that my posts are marked by a particular filename. If you create a reputation, someone will always go out of their way to hurt you.

>>7565
I use the same username on every website. The secret isn't hiding behind countless aliases, it's just not saying stupid things you're going to regret.

>>7563
>But we don't see people going to jail for being unpatriotic now, do we?

Err... yeah we do? Thanks to freedom of speech, you won't be jailed for saying America, or XYZcounty sucks dick, but if you act on that in any sort of manner, you're getting the slammer.

>I think the collective will of people is probably the worst option there is

Oh but of course; if we're dealing with the regular lawbreaking shit. However, we are not. We're dealing with the sort of trash that thinks it can upload heinous shit to the internet and smugly fly away, never to be punished. Because hey, they're anonymous after all.

Why shouldn't that scum be left to the mercy of the unwashed mob? They deserve to be left in the tumultuous grasp of the raging community.

>>7558
If you are trying to repost something you accidentally deleted, I don't know if you can. Just edit out the copied bits and give it up as a bad job.

>>7566
Yeah that's true, but it sucks the fun out of being able to say whatever you want. Sometimes you just need to get things off your chest too.

>>7567
We do? Well, fuck, I don't know what to say. It's just insanely idiotic.

>They deserve to be left in the tumultuous grasp of the raging community.
This is exacly what I was opposing. No, they don't. How will it be decided who and what they deserve, and by whom? If you refer to >>7563, you can see how problematic this can be. >>7496 expressed it perfectly, the potential for abuse is enormous.

I think you might be missing something vital here. It's so common in China because of totalitarianism. People feel weak and feel the government can't be trusted - this is where all the anger comes from. It has to be directed at something or someone. It can't be directed 'upwards' - at the government - so it's directed 'sideways' - at people who are essentially in the same situation.

This truly is terrifying. The idea behind Human Flesh Search Engine itself is good. Someone did something despicable, let's dig info on him so that he'll get what he deserves. The thing is, they should notify police or something of the sort at this point and just let them do their job. Again, this isn't possible in China.

The real problem here is that some people don't question any of these stories. Everyone is 'guilty until proven innocent' here. Nobody asks the person who is tracked down about their version of the story. And once you've been slandered - called a raptist, pedo or something of the sort - you're done for. People will associate your name with said accusations and even if you managed to prove them to be untrue only a select few will know as much. Your life will be pretty much over.

What's truly terrifying is that it's not just China. Just look at this:

>There was recently a human flesh search in Seattle. Someone -- young White man with tattoo and his overweight 3DPD (read, white trash) -- was accused of setting his pit bulls on some dogs, killing one of them. Hysteria ensued but was kept in check by skeptics who found all sorts of holes in the story. In the end, human search didn't lead to the owner of the pit bulls, it lead to the "victim." The dog was fine, no cuts, no blood. The story was mostly made up. It was a hoax started by someone who probably wants the city to ban pit bulls.

If some people didn't react in time the snowball effect would make sure the lynch can't be stopped even if someone proved that there can be no doubt that said guy did nothing wrong.

The thing that is even worse it the fact that it's not criminals who they're pursuing.

>Searches have been directed against all kinds of people, including cheating spouses, corrupt government officials, amateur pornography makers, Chinese citizens who are perceived as unpatriotic, journalists who urge a moderate stance on Tibet and rich people who try to game the Chinese system.

>"If a person doesn’t do anything wrong, they won’t be human-flesh-searched."

Except the only crime listed above is corruption. Otherwise, it's all just moral standards. If you'll do something people don't like you're done for. In our case it's pretty obvious all of us would be lynched without a second thought.

Another example that I remember is a girl who was photographed when she was sitting on shoulders of Mao's statue. Some US citizens were outraged that you'd ruin someone's life for that. But what if someone would be photographed sitting on shoulders of state of crucified Jesus in US? Same thing would happen.

Actually, some of this already happened. There have been many cases where abortionists have been doxed. I know about at least one case where said abortionist was killed.

>Second thing is, most of the time the person who is targeted by this is not a criminal but simply someone who is thinking or behaving differently than the targeter group. What corcerns me here is that outcasts are driven out once more, and out of all places, they're losing internet which is ultimately an utopia for people that cannot express themselves or live comfortably in real life.

My thoughts exactly.

>>7534

One could say there's nothing wrong with that. But would you like it if someone notified your parents that their son is fapping to underage anime girls? Yeah, didn't think so.

>Then people painted red characters on his parents’ front door, which said things like, ‘You caused your wife’s suicide, so you should pay.’

...



Again, this was a good idea but it was taken too far. People take part in such lynches because they are frustrated and want to vend their frustration in some

way. I bet many of them enjoy doing it. They just destroyed someone's life. Purest form of shadenfreude.

As much as I hate to use a passage from the Bible... "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

Nobody has a clear conscience.

>This is about human retribution, anger and vengeance, and the powerless tasting a path to power.

Ultimately, this is probably what motivates people to do it in the first place. Just as Orwell said, people want to hold power not as a means to achieve their goals - power is the goal itself. It has to be part of our genes. It's the same for all animals to be honest. Animals fight to be the leader of their group - that's their instinct at work. Even though we claim we evolved this far apparently we can't even get rid of traits such as these.
That's why people strive to be 'successful'. They want to have a whole lot of other people 'under' them, they want to have an advantage over them, they want to look down upon them, they want to rule them. Living a peaceful, happy life is probably the opposite of what ... most (?) people want to do. They want to engage in conflict and come out on top.

>>7570
So, to summarize; people suck. Gotcha.

As an aside, how the hell can you people write up these giant walls of text. Even at my most verbose, I cannot even attempt to encroach upon that level. Goddamn.

>>7570
Have you ever BEEN to China?

>>7571

That's pretty short for me. I tend to be rather long-winded on the 'net. Half of that post is quotes, too.

>>7572

No.

>>7570
I'm really glad there are still people like you who can see things objectively to this extent. Come to think of it, you might be the only person I have ever encountered so far that is not blinded by personal/moral values. I'm getting this unusual, heart-warming feeling. I'm not sure if I'm being too ridiculous or creepy, but I'm still going to post this. Anyway, keep up the good work and don't forget to take it easy!

I forgot to mention one thing. Apparently, government hires people called 'five hairs'. Think of them as viral marekters. They supposedly watch over Human Flesh Search Engine threads on the most popular B.B.S.s and try to push some initiatives and shoot down the ones they don't like. Basically, they're manipulating the crowds like there's no tommorow.

Of course, that's just something I've read. Might be true (sounds plausible at least), might be just an urban legend. Maybe I'll look into it later.

>>7574

Uh, thanks I guess?