Cyber Vigilantism – How the Cyber Mob Behaves

Abstract

Social media can be seen as a democratising force in which everyone can have their say and each person has an opinion which they can voice to the whole world. So when a person encounters something which he or she feels is wrong, or feels that an injustice has been done, then the person can take to the Internet and voice his or her outrage. But what if this went too far and calls of outrage mutated into calls for ‘justice’ outside the law? This is the problem of cyber vigilantism in which the sentiments of the mob sweep across social media. It would appear that the speed of communication has overtaken the ability of some to think objectively.