4 ms·

> The line between people sending death threats on twitter and the person who strangled his sister for posting selfies is very thin. Not to make light of folks

by 67726e 10y ago

> The line between people sending death threats on twitter and the person who strangled his sister for posting selfies is very thin. Not to make light of folks sending death threats, but I would imagine that can mostly be written off as shitty trolls. In my experience there is a large jump between someone saying "I'm gonna kick your ass" and actually attempting to kick my ass, and that's when it is being said to me personally. Threatening people online seems very trite, and toothless. Saying this as someone who has been swatted, I think the line between Twitter threats and a fake hostage call is pretty thin. The line between a Twitter threat and murder seems pretty damn wide to me.

digi_owl 10y ago
I can't help see a uptick in this activity after labels like anonymous got MSM attention. Being an amorphous blob that barely had the fawkes mask as a symbol allowed people to feel like they had the backing of a group when spewing their vitriol.
- pjc50 10y ago
  I don't think it requires that mask, people are happy to do it with anonymous twitter eggs, anime avatars, or (if they feel they have enough social support) presidential campaigns. There does seem to have been a rise since I first started on the internet, but I'm not sure when I'd date it to.
  - 67726e 10y ago
    Part of me agrees with digi_owl, I think seeing reports of 4chan trolls and those "hackers known as anonymous" probably ended up mobilizing a lot of jackasses that probably would have never gotten into that "scene". Kinda like how the media has latched onto this "killer clown" bullshit after some kid claimed he saw one and now you're seeing reports of this shit all over the country. However, if memory serves, the whole "anonymous" crap really came into it's own somewhat in lockstep with the rise of social media which itself has given a voice to a lot of people that otherwise would have just been isolated to a forum or shitty GeoCities website. So now you've got a bunch of eggs and anime avatars screaming about corrupt Hillary and fascist Trump and spewing vitriol at anything that dare cross their path. Of course everyone is getting so damned politically polar in this time-frame, we've got major news networks half-acting like gossip blogs, and now every jackass with a cellphone has a(n anonymous) voice. It's really just a confluence of shit.

by 67726e 10y ago

digi_owl 10y ago

I can't help see a uptick in this activity after labels like anonymous got MSM attention. Being an amorphous blob that barely had the fawkes mask as a symbol allowed people to feel like they had the backing of a group when spewing their vitriol.

pjc50 10y ago
I don't think it requires that mask, people are happy to do it with anonymous twitter eggs, anime avatars, or (if they feel they have enough social support) presidential campaigns. There does seem to have been a rise since I first started on the internet, but I'm not sure when I'd date it to.
- 67726e 10y ago
  Part of me agrees with digi_owl, I think seeing reports of 4chan trolls and those "hackers known as anonymous" probably ended up mobilizing a lot of jackasses that probably would have never gotten into that "scene". Kinda like how the media has latched onto this "killer clown" bullshit after some kid claimed he saw one and now you're seeing reports of this shit all over the country. However, if memory serves, the whole "anonymous" crap really came into it's own somewhat in lockstep with the rise of social media which itself has given a voice to a lot of people that otherwise would have just been isolated to a forum or shitty GeoCities website. So now you've got a bunch of eggs and anime avatars screaming about corrupt Hillary and fascist Trump and spewing vitriol at anything that dare cross their path. Of course everyone is getting so damned politically polar in this time-frame, we've got major news networks half-acting like gossip blogs, and now every jackass with a cellphone has a(n anonymous) voice. It's really just a confluence of shit.