Digital Vigilantism Quotes

You have the right to free speech as an American - you have no right to use YouTube to do it. And the mobs that exist can form very quickly if they are offended by your presence there.

When you label them, when one of the most powerful social media companies in the world labels people as Nazis, you could make the argument that's inciting violence.

There’s no point in having an online mob if you can’t give it someone to trample.

The first week of Gamergate, I didn't sleep or eat at all.

Gamergate has grown into a hate group that threatens the stability of the $60 billion a year game industry.

The only time I've ever felt like I needed to measure my activity and involvement in holding people accountable for being violent on social media is when I think about the things that I might lose for saying something. That's the only time I end up thinking about it.

A mob pelting pilloried wrongdoers with rotten vegetables would seem to have little in common with one doing the same with 140-character invective, except of course the most important thing: the belief that they are in the right, and are even doing good by making the object of their contempt feel really, really bad.

You know, the courts may not be working any more, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done.

I know it's dangerous to take on bloggers. They can go after you every day, all day long, and anonymous people can chime in, too.

Most members of Gamergate, the alt-right movement best known for harassing women in the game industry, operate under a veil of anonymity.

This week a group of activists, known as Anonymous, hacked the Twitter account of the KKK. The KKK is furious. They said Anonymous is just a bunch of cowards who don't have the courage to show their faces.

GamerGate is really a sexist temper tantrum. That's kind of a silly, funny way of putting it, but it's kind of what it feels like, right? They're going after and targeting women who are trying to make changes in the industry. They're attacking anyone who supports women.

But there is a process that happens when you're making something, be it a musical or a new play. That process takes time, and mistakes will be made along the way, and you will go down and hit dead ends. But it is so public now. Any yahoo with a computer can start a firestorm.

I'm really bad with trolls because I have a lot of really intense friends who are not necessarily doing things so legally. If I get trolled, [my friends will send me] an email with the person's Social Security number, phone number, pictures of his family, his business, his spouse. I see this person in his totality, and I feel so bad. I shouldn't have that power.

Back in the day you used to have a fight. You win, you lose, you get up and go home, dust yourself down. Social media made it so that if you lose a fight it is on camera, you are embarrassed and you are forced to react.

People conclude that if the famous can be dragged through the virtual public square and unceremoniously dumped, the fate of any random tweeter or the average man or woman on the street can seem even more precarious.

People can demand someone they've never met be arrested and thrown in jail forever because they know it's never going to happen and they're never going to see this person.