Well-Intentioned but Disastrous Attempts at Internet Vigilantism

Let’s face it—many of us on the Internet secretly wish we were vigilantes like Batman. In a world where awful things sometimes happen to undeserving people, the desire to dispense some quick fist-based justice can be overpowering. That’s why it’s so easy to organize an Internet lynch mob. Many people have the urge to want to make the world a better place. However, not every attempt at online vigilantism snags the right culprit. In some cases, people get it completely wrong and it makes the Punisher-wannabes among us look like total idiots. Here’s a list of when these attempts made things worse.  

1. Reddit Attacks a Charity Fundraiser Despite its flaws, Reddit users have a good track record of supporting charitable causes. While many are good at spotting scammers, occasionally some people get it wrong. It started when 21-year-old Maya Gilsey decided to collect donations for her cancer charity fundraiser via PayPal instead of a dedicated donation site. People got suspicious, so suspicious that they bombarded her Facebook account, reported her to the FBI for fraud, forced her fundraising website offline, and began threatening her boyfriend. At that point, Gilsey logged back into Reddit and proved her fundraising story beyond a shadow of a doubt.  

2. Misinterpreted Comment Gets Two People Fired Sexism is a big problem within the tech world so when developer Adria Richards found herself at a conference in front of two men making jokes about “big dongles” and “forking” someone’s “repo,” she was upset. After taking a picture of the men, Richards tweeted their comments to the entire world, triggering a storm of outrage that culminated in one of the men losing his job. Sadly,  Richards misunderstood what the men were talking about. Like most close friends, he and his friend had developed their own code words for stuff and there was zero sexual context. Richards was later fired. 

3. Spike Lee Orders a Lynch Mob for the Wrong House Shortly after the Trayvon Martin incident concluded and Zimmerman was acquitted—a move that left many people outraged, people began to protest. Among those outraged people was film director Spike Lee, who responded by tweeting Zimmerman’s address along with an incitement to violence. The problem was that the address Lee provided didn’t belong to the Zimmerman in the Martin case. Instead, he directed the lynch mob to the house of a sweet old couple whose son shared George’s same name. Unsurprisingly, the pensioners were soon bombarded with threats and feared for their lives.

 4. Gamergate Turns into a Harassment Campaign Gamergate was a controversy that began with allegations of unethical practices in the gaming industry, but soon turned into an attack on women in the industry. Female game developers, journalists, and critics were targeted with online abuse, threats, and doxxing (revealing personal information online without consent). The harassment was so severe that many women were forced to leave the industry or endure trauma. Gamergate became an example of how online vigilantism can quickly devolve into a harmful and destructive mob mentality. 

5. Online Witchhunt After the Boston Marathon  In the aftermath of the tragic Boston Marathon incident in 2013, Reddit users took it upon themselves to find the culprits. They formed a subreddit and started combing through photos and videos from the event, trying to identify the suspects. However, their efforts quickly turned into a witch hunt as they began accusing innocent people based on speculation and conjecture. One person, Sunil Tripathi, was falsely identified as a suspect and was relentlessly targeted online. Despite his family's pleas, the online mob continued to harass and accuse him, until it was found that he had passed away.