SMS - The new tool for vigilante justice?

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I’ll add this to the Nigerian Bank scam as indication that SMS has finally arrived on the scene.  From the UK comes news that text messages were being used to mobilize, well, a mob.

Following the tragic death of a 17-month old child at the hands of his abusive parents, social networking sites and thousands of crowdsourced text messages urged the public to take action.  Here’s a sample:

“They r (mother’s name) and (boyfriend’s name) of (name of street and area). Jason Owen [was] living with them. I urge everyone to pass this on so everybody can name and shame them. Also pls sign the petition to have justice for that poor little boy. Rest in peace little man. Thanks.”

While it’s hard to argue against the sentiment, it’s clear that the speed of relaying texts like these can be disturbingly effective at inciting retribution and crimes of passion.

There are two things that greatly contribute to mob mentality:  time, and a network-effect that causes the outrage to grow stronger as the group gets larger.  Decreasing the former also tends to multiply the latter.  That’s why SMS, especially when coupled with social networks, can create an angry mob so quickly.

I don’t think that top-down restrictions can be successful in curbing the dangers posed by this sort of vigilante behavior; just like rumors or hate speech, each individual will need to be cognizant of the consequences of proliferating the message through a powerful medium.

Thankfully, despite reports of large protests, I have not heard notice of any revenge-driven actions committed in response to this text message, as of the date of today’s posting.