On Death Threats and the Blogosphere

Kathy Sierra, a very popular blogger, has been receiving very serious and scary death threats over the last several weeks. The situation has gotten so bad she is afraid to leave her home. Allegedly other bloggers are behind the attacks.

Although startling and thoroughly condemnable, this situation - or God forbid worse - is bound to occur and it does all the time. Nobody should have to deal with such threats. However, the blogosphere is a community made up of human beings. Therefore, it's going to bring out all of the good in society and also the bad. Sometimes they converge and that's what is happening here. The bad are unjustly targeting someone good.

Most people who publish online are doing so for motivations that are positive and constructive. You always hope that the good will drown out the negative and that words won't come to actions. However, such behavior will never go away. We're humans and this is a human medium.

My thoughts are with Kathy and her family and my best goes out to her. Be strong. We're with you.

Comments

[Kevin]

The problem isn't that it's a human medium - the problem is that it's a dehumanizing medium. People assume that if they're reading content on on a machine that the entity that created that content is somehow less human than someone they would meet in person. That contributes to a lot of the "trolls" on the internet and threats like this. I seriously doubt the idiots who made these threats would do so in person. The dehumanization of relative anonymity empowers people who would otherwise keep their fetishes and rage to themselves.

[Christopher Penn, Financial Aid Podcast]

It's my personal hope, regardless of police involvement, that any legal professionals who are at the top of their game reach out to Kathy and offer their assistance to her, pro bono, to litigate against all involved parties. Sticks and stones can break bones, words can harm, but a never-ending stream of lawsuits really stings.

[David Pappas]

I agree with Kevin. It's much the same as road rage. People in cars treat others in cars far worse then they would in any face to face social setting. Somehow we have to apply the lessons learned in some of these other de-humanizing settings to curb the on line behavior.

[Frank]

Hey scottstrash, no offense, but how the hell can an iPod get up to 1080i resolution via and HDMI adapter.

Sorry but the apple tv and ipod are 2 really different things.

It seems that Apple TV does not perform well on some SD TVs which should be fixed, because not everyone has

bought a HD TV at home.

My apple tv converter
http://www.apple-tv-converter.com

[Mike]

Wow, Frank, great insight.

And kudos to Typepad's spam filtering.

[David Burn]

The dehumanization of relative anonymity empowers people who would otherwise keep their fetishes and rage to themselves. -Kevin

Thanks Kevin. That's the best sentence I've read on a blog in a long time.

[Mia D]

I don't know what's more disturbing, the vicious nature of these threats or the bloggers who condone these horrific threats. Unfortunately, this isn't just a bunch of anon mentally unhinged folks posting death threats. According to Kathy, similar threats were posted (and condoned) on blogs co-authored/owned by a group of well-known bloggers. With bloggers like these, who needs trolls?!

[Jeff Ventura]

Just blogged about this myself, Steve. This meme is everywhere, as well it should be.

My thoughts can be found here. I think any blogger who values his or her medium and feel it should be protected and validated should have some thoughts with respect to what happened to Sierra.

Thanks.