Extortion is a weird, upsetting crime. It seems to be a waste product or high-entropy end state in a stagnant economic system. First, the powerful extort const

Extortion is a weird, upsetting crime. It seems to be a waste product or high-entropy end state in a stagnant economic system. First, the powerful extort constantly. When VCs use their social connections to other VCs (the culture of co-funding) to pull the "we'll turn off the whole Valley" card, also known as "the reputation threat", and get people to sign bad term sheets, that's extortion. Most bad reference and negative reputation issues that exist in the Valley come from people who refused to be extorted. But when people in power do it, they don't call it "extortion". They call it "power". Likewise, most people who acquire power did so by extortion. Not in the hold-up sense, but by happening into important information on powerful people and being able to leverage it into the investment of said powerful people in their careers. All that said, it takes a certain social skill to pull off. You can't just send an email saying, "I know <X> and will release it unless you provide <Y>, <Z>, and <W>." You'll piss that person off, and it's a felony, and even though you'll probably never do jail time (because the extortion target still doesn't want "X" to see daylight) that person now holds the cards. You have to be really subtle and it's best if the extortion threat is unsaid. One of the reasons why fraternity affiliations are so powerful is the implied mutual extortion that comes from living together for 3-4 years at a time of life in which people tend to be impulsive and do incredibly stupid things that their adult selves will regret. If you're in the same frat, you're bound to have dirt on that person, and if that person becomes powerful, you'll cash in. If you say, "I'll reveal <X> unless you <Y>" you won't get anything, and you could end up in jail... but if it's a tacit agreement, that person will support your career in perpetuity. Perversely, the network effect of this tacit, mutual extortion is positive for the group of people it covers because it spreads good fortune around. Extortion seems to be a by-product of stagnation, because it's the ultimate zero-sum activity. It's what people start doing to each other when they give up on new contribution. Oddly, the frat culture (for all its ugliness) seems to be an adaptation to this because, while it creates a low-level tacit extortion field, it also prepares people to handle external extortions (from "the proles" who "have no right") and to exercise power (cough extort others). What's strange about this rash of online extortions is that it seems to be coming at a time when, objectively, there shouldn't be a sense of economic stagnation. There are, arguably, more opportunities for positive-sum contribution than there ever were. But the social distance between capital and effort/talent has never been greater, especially on a global scale, so that might explain the problem.