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Comment by wavefunction | Hacker News Reader

The TechCrunch story seems like a misapplication of machine learning. Even when an individual is alleged to have committed a crime in the US, they enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Texting someone that the police are watching them based solely on their associations seems both intentionally creepy and un-Constitutional. I suppose this is the Chicago PD though. Given their operation of "Black Sites" in contravention of the Constitution they apparently don't care too much for the Rule of Law.

Your second link is quite fascinating though.

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Unfortunately, social media has revived the witch hunt. People are presumed guilty till proven innocent, within the public domain.

So while this is less likely to become prevalent in criminal cases, this sets up a dual system. In the public sphere you can be affected in numerous deleterious ways because there is no presumption of innocence in the public sphere. Even if you're not on social media. You can be mistakenly doxxed and suffer the consequences.

We will need to come to terms with the implications of both these distinct phenomena which can result in injustice.

Just because it’s new to you, doesn’t mean that moral panics somehow didn’t exist before the internet. More importantly as with the case of sexual harassment and assault, the internet can offer a platform that doesn’t necessarily require panic to talk about basic morality.

Of course they existed. It's why we have the centuries-old term "witch hunt". The important thing is not that they are unheard of, but that they are back, after a rather long hiatus in the West.

And the worst thing about the witch hunts to my mind is not that they are happening; it is the increasing amount of the population that sees them as a good thing. As long as they are targeted at the right people, of course, but the standards used for "right people" are growing quickly, too.

A hiatus? Really?

‘80’s: The Satanic Panic

‘90’s: Crack and Rap

‘00’s: Video Games

‘10’s: OMGZ Teh Internet!

I lived through all of that. It was not continuous like it is now. It was intermittent. If the media had not been ginning them up for the temporal equivalent of "page views" they wouldn't have happened at all. Now "the people" can generate them on their own. (The media still runs along behind fanning the flames, but they're working to keep up rather than leading it now.) There has been a fundamental change in how they work now.

That’s essentially the same argument which was levied against the Gutenberg press, and the home telephone, the crossbow, and virtually all significant advances which served to empower more people at the expense of hierarchy.

I don't think jerf is saying that the increased prevalence of witch hunts is an argument levied against the internet. I'm pretty sure jerf is an enthusiastic supporter of the internet. Nonetheless, the increased prevalence of witch hunts which is enabled by the internet is lamentable and worth addressing.

I am no longer able to track what argument you think I am making, or that you are making.

I think there is a difference between unsubstantiated vilification of an amorphous or undefined group, (headbangers, techbros) and particular individuals (i.e. doxxing). I mean, sure you had an exception where Ozzy "ate a live bat" but it was more about "more at 11".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08...

Just for one example of how individuals were indeed singled out. Same with each example given, I’d recommend studying the history of this aspect of human behavior to get a grip on its present. Sure, Harvey Weinstein and his ilk did alright, but plenty of individuals went through the wringer. That’s not even looking at the impact of the crack panic on the prison population and various communities.

You just didn’t have a live feed informing you of their plight.

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