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WoW Breeding Online Vigilantes In China
In the holy-lord-I-hope-this-never-happens-to-me dept., an article today over at the International Herald Tribune shines a light on an interesting phenomenon that's making headlines in China; internet hunting. No, it's not when you click the mouse on those 'shoot the duck' pop-up ads; internet hunting is nothing less than a virtual mob of people tracking down the perpetrator of an alleged indescretion online & basically making their life a living hell any way they can. It began with the case a couple of years ago where a woman seen being abusive to her pet in public was tracked down online & harrassed mercilessly by hundreds of Chinese internet users, and the latest case started right in our beloved World of Warcraft.As the article states, a player named Freezing Blade apparently discoved a communication between his wife & an acquaintance that led him to believe the two were having an affair. So, he gathered a group of online friends & proceeded to 'hunt' the other guy. Soon, the 'hunt' included literally thousands of other players & net users, in what might be a bigger manhunt than the FBI has conducted in years.The net can be a powerful tool for a variety of things, so I'm surprised it's taken this long for online revenge to make the news. I just hope none of my ex-girlfriends ever reads this and gets any bright ideas. In any case, it's a fascinating read. Check out the full article right here.
