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[quote]Human flesh search engines: Chinese vigilantes that hunt victims on the web
A new phenomenon is sweeping China after the quake: digital witch hunts of those who dare to be outspoken or criticise [/quote]
[quote]Ms Wang's Chinese name, Chinese identification number and contact details in America were tracked down and posted across the internet. She received hate mail and threats that if ever she returned to China, she would be ??chopped into 10,000 pieces ? . Her parents' address in China was published and they were forced to go into hiding.
Tibetans have also been targeted. After 44-year-old Lobsang Gendun was photographed protesting at the Olympic torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco, the human flesh search engine whirred into action.
With huge overseas communities, it took just a couple of hours for Chinese web users to collate the pieces of Mr Gendun's life ?? replete with Google satellite map and photos of his American home.
??I suggest assassination, ? wrote one poster. ??Execution by shooting, ? said another. No, no, insisted yet another: ??Use China's most ancient form of execution ?? dismember him. ?
In an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, it turned out there was another exiled Tibetan called Lobsang Gendun living in Utah. Since the targeting of his namesake began, Mr Gendun, a self-proclaimed ??Olympic supporter ? , has received hundreds of aggressive emails and telephone calls. [/quote]
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The speed to which the vigilantes can mount an attack is amazing, not just in China, but in Korea and America as well.
The Snoop Nextdoor
OeszoAs0Sa3YsO80IOEwzj7Vfg8_20080112.html?mod=blogs#printMode
[quote]The digital age allows critics to quickly find a fair amount
of information about their targets. One day last November, at about
11:30 a.m., a blog focused on making New York streets more
bike-friendly posted the license plate number of an SUV driver who allegedly accelerated from a dead stop to hit a bicycle blocking his way.
At 1:16 p.m., someone posted the registration
information for the license plate, including the SUV owner's name and
address. (The editor of the blog thinks the poster got the information
from someone who had access to a license-plate look-up service,
available to lawyers, private investigators and police.) At 1:31 p.m.,
another person added the owner's occupation, his business's name and
his title. Ten minutes later, a user posted a link to an aerial photo
of the owner's house. Within another hour, the posting also included
the accused's picture and email address.
The SUV's owner, Ian Goldman, the chief executive of Celerant
Technology Corp. in the New York City borough of Staten Island,
declined to comment for this article. According to an email exchange
posted on the blog, Mr. Goldman said that he had lent the vehicle in
question to a relative with "an urgent medical situation" and that he
was not aware of any incident. The alleged victim has decided to drop
the matter since the damage to the bicycle, which he was standing next
to at the time, was under $20. Last month, Aaron Naparstek, editor of
the blog, says he removed Mr. Goldman's home and email addresses from
the site after receiving a "lawyerly cease and desist" email asking
that the whole posting be deleted.[/quote]
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