It might be interesting to track the concept of "deviance" as a characterization of online behaviors. Of course, that word has a very troubling history (e.g., "sexual deviance" as a label for the minority sexual orientations). In my experience, "deviance" has been a label applied to people whom other people did not like (the case of Mark Ethan Smith), and also to cyberloafing. You can find a lot of work in this area in the ACM Digital Library if you search on "deviance." I readily acknowledge that there are pernicious and aggressive and deliberately hurtful activities that occur online, fueled by racism and sexism and homophobia and all sort of hatreds. If the topic is "vigilantism," then it might be interesting to look at boundaries, and at who has the power to characterize other people (or their actions) as "mobs" or as "justice." thanks, --michael From: "Mathieu.O'Neil" <mathieu.oneil@canberra.edu.au> To: Penn Pantumsinchai <ppantum@hawaii.edu>, AoIR <air-l@listserv.aoir.org>, Date: 06/23/2014 07:48 PM Subject: Re: [Air-L] Online mob justice Sent by: "Air-L" <air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org> Hi Going through email and saw this so replying a bit late but hey: in the 1990s there was a lot of discussion around vigilantism on Usenet as anyone could cancel an offender (such as a spammer)'s account. The most famous vigilante was called Cancelmoose. There was some analysis of this by legal scholars, you can find references in my book Cyberchiefs. cheers Mathieu -----Original Message----- From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Penn Pantumsinchai Sent: Friday, 13 June 2014 1:42 PM To: AoIR Subject: [Air-L] Online mob justice Hi everyone, I am currently starting research on online mob/vigilante justice and was wondering if anyone is researching the same topic or know of any studies/resources. Prime examples of online mob justice include the failed hunt for the Boston bomber by Reddit users or many of the 'human flesh search engine' cases in China. I would be grateful for any suggestions. Thank you very much! -- Penn Pantumsinchai University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Sociology, Ph.D. Student _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/