Vigilantes taking the law into their own hands with violence is always a sign of a healthy society. It also never leads to tragedy.
Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral: With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution.
Submitted 1 month ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
riodoro1@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Vigilantes not fueled by lack of justice, but by views mind you.
dalekcaan@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Ah, TikTok justice. No way for that to go wrong, nosir.
poopkins@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m completely with you on this, and I’m surprised your comment is so highly voted because this community is quick to endorse vigilantism. Just the other day I was scrolling through a thread full of comments about how a guy who was arrested should have been more brutally assaulted by an angry mob.
superniceperson@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Vigilantism is just a sign that government has become too corrupt to deal with problems effectively. It can be good or evil, it can be effective or a complete nightmarish excuse to get rid of hates minorities or people the majority simply fell out of favor with.
But if you’re a victim under that corrupt government, it’s the only solution you have, so its hard not to cheer. No one is shedding tears for torched tesla’s in dealerships or the dead ceo Saint Luigi was framed for killing.
Its just harder to trust and justify clout chasers attacking essentially random people they themselves labeled with a crime that no one can reasonably defend themselves against.
chetradley@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Lots of people in the comments are failing to see the issue with this, so allow me to illustrate. Fair warning, this will not be an easy read.
So let’s imagine you really hate trans people, gay people, and liberals. Unfortunately for you, none of these are crimes (yet), so you can’t just go around assaulting and killing these people indiscriminately, as much as you’d like to. So what are you going to do?
Well, the best hate campaigns start with a shared enemy, and nobody is more hated than a child predator. Best of all, you can do pretty much whatever you want to them with no recourse. What are they going to do, call the police? Nobody is going to speak out against what you’re doing, because if they do, you can just say that if they don’t support you, then they must be defending child predators!
Now that we have a precedent for violence, it’s time to expand our scope a bit. Since hunting pedophiles is a-ok, now you just need to label anyone you don’t like a pedophile. You could say gay and trans people are pedophiles and groomers. And again, if anyone opposes you, just call them a groomer too!
But maybe that’s not enough for you. No, you want to make sure that you can target anyone who disagrees with you. Well good news, because you can just join a group of people who believe that anyone who dislikes Donald Trump is a deep state pedophile. You don’t even need evidence anymore, and there’s a good chance the cops will be on your side! Happy hunting!
Seriously though, this vigilante “justice” should not be celebrated. Yes, we need to take child predators off the streets, but there is a process for that. Denying anyone due process opens the door to denying it to everyone.
greenwood@midwest.social 1 month ago
These type of discussions remind me of a case in Minnesota where a neighbor framed their neighbor by hacking their wifi and planting child pornography.
Devmapall@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I wish that article had more information on how the framed person proved their innocence. It’s probably boring but he must have felt like he was taking crazy pills when he was framed.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 month ago
It was also an episode of CSI Miami, where a dude targeted “pedo” by planting a virus that quickly put CPnon the computer. Since the original guy did this he was arrested for Distribution of COmP
Shardikprime@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Do people read this and fail to realize that the “calling everyone I disagree with is a Nazi” rhetoric is the exact same thing? Yes, they do
WhatsTheHoldup@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Do people read this and fail to realize that the “calling everyone I disagree with is a Nazi” rhetoric is the exact same thing?
Like how Elon can do a full Nazi salute multiple times but then throw out some rhetoric about how “they call everyone Nazis” and everyone just buys it?
Yeah I can see how they’re similar.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Who are you targeting with that message? Because what’s going on with the current US admin is straight out of the nazi playbook.
It feels like you are trying to get validation for your position.
chetradley@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Are you accusing me of being alarmist after I provided sources for the things that are actually going on?
nomy@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
See the problem is a lot of people see “Nazi” and (for some reason) think people are literally talking about a card carrying member of the NSDAP, which obviously doesn’t exists after 1945.
Substitute “fascist authoritarian” for “Nazi” in more modern contexts and it makes more sense.
HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I’d say it’s also a problem that the sort of people who use the Internet to find people to beat up are idiots, so even if they aren’t going out of their way to victimize minorities, odds are they’ll just beat up some random person.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Don’t they already do that? Them getting attacked isn’t getting in a court conviction anytime soon, because it will be disregarded evidence, and it was done with prejudice too
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Yeah I believe the next step in this process is to make the easy jump into hunting all those people expressing ‘Pedo apologia’. Half this thread suddenly is fair game to ‘investigate.’
It’s a bottomless well, really.
Mora@pawb.social 1 month ago
In Austria the ‘pedophile hunters’ targeted gay men who were not pedophiles. If ‘paedophile hunters’ would actually care about their care, they would storm the next church…
Ushmel@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is obviously where this is going and it’s a big part why they’re obsessed with labeling people “groomers.”
HawlSera@lemm.ee 1 month ago
The Church actually has a lower rate of child abuse than public schools…
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 month ago
Only one thing to do: set two pedophile hunters up on a date.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
kinda like an inverted version of that Black Mirror episode but instead of making two pedophiles kill each other, we get the hunters to hut each other?
breakingcups@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That is fucking genius
rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Like when one police precinct sets up a drug bust on an undercover cop from another precinct pretending to be a drug dealer.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Pedo accusations don’t come from concerns for kids but from enpowerement to do violence and the ability to righteously attack.
This inversion from concern for others to desire to cause harm through paranoia derived justifications is becoming a real problem.
If someone steps in to stop them attacking the innocent they will claim those people are defending pedos.
We’re going to have the stupidest of wars on our hands.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 1 month ago
This.
Plus it’s self defeating. Too often when they find real predators, the evidence is tainted by the way it was collected by idiots who have no idea what they’re doing.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Yea, all of that is not admissible in court too. And they often end up attacking innocent people, additionally it labels them a pedo so, they instantly get fired, lose their wives, children, friends,etc
kerrigan778@lemmy.world 1 month ago
There’s a reason an insane number of the people who publicly attack pedophillia are in fact pedophiles.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 month ago
That too, but also some have been not to be pedos, I doubt these influencers will reveal the ones they attacked are not one,.bum
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
I assumed it was because they are so sloppy, they use it in any disagreement “you’re either with us or you’re a pedophile !” much in the same way we often here “don’t call everyone a Nazi” Do we see many Nazi calling each other Nazi in anger and in a derogatory manner ?
Alpha71@lemmy.world 1 month ago
One could call the the “Stupid Wars”
callouscomic@lemm.ee 1 month ago
“Stupid wars need the MOST attention.”
T156@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s basically the same motivation as people who have a gun and are itching for the apocalypse so they can loose the safeties.
Even saying that it’s righteous violence is ascribing positive motivations that may not exist. They’re just looking for someone to attack, and an alleged paedophile is a socially acceptable target to unleash that violence on.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
We’re going to have the stupidest of wars on our hands.
Finally, my decades of stupid training will pay off!
Allero@lemmy.today 1 month ago
There’s one more angle to this - apart from the raise in vigilante violence and messing up with police operations which both are very valid.
Just as we stopped getting TV feeds constantly equating pedophiles to child molesters, those guys stepped in to fill the void.
Pedophiles are not inherently child molesters. This kind of equation is not only wrong, it also adds to promoting dangerous behaviors among them.
Plenty of pedophiles will never abuse a single child, knowing full well it is dangerous and harmful for minors to be engaged in such relationships. However, the more we equate pedophiles to predators, the more people, especially in the emotionally vulnerable groups like teen pedophiles, will actually accept themselves in this role. Among those who stands against this anyway, plenty will become suicidal, not seeing an option to live a non-offending life.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
That’s an interesting and reasonable take.
I’m actually surprised you are not down voted to oblivion!Allero@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Guess this is what happens when you meet real people online who are not artificially enraged - a productive conversation!
ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 month ago
The pedophiles being attacked are actively hunting, otherwise, they wouldn’t be caught in a trap…
Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Some of these “pedo hunter” groups have attacked completely innocent people where the accusation of someone being a pedo was completely unsubstantiated. This is the problem with monetizing vigilantism: It creates a demand, and if that demand is not being met by a supply of actual criminals, then it will be filled by vigilantes criminalizing innocent people.
Allero@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Sure, but shows of this kind imply that all pedophiles are child abusers and all child abusers are pedophiles, neither of which is true - and such equations are harmful.
T156@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Not only that, but it both reduces the chance of someone going to get help, because they don’t want to be hunted down, and reporting, because someone who knows of them might not want to see them be lynched, and won’t report them for that reason.
Allero@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
Absolutely!
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
There’s no such thing as a “non-harmful” pedofile.
Either you’re actively molesting children (yes…even teens), or you’re consuming the CP that is the result of OTHER people abusing children by forcing them to participate and worse.
You don’t get to say “its not repulsive to consume the product as long as youre not a creator of it”. Consuming the end result is still participating in it.
I can’t believe that even has to be pointed out.
Lazhward@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You’re clearly missing several possibilities.
Allero@lemmy.today 1 month ago
…or you do neither of those?
Naich@lemmings.world 1 month ago
Have they tried looking in churches and the Republican party?
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 1 month ago
Oh. They’re just gonna call people pedo and attack them even though they’re not. It’s extremely obvious.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I’d make a guess they’re getting violent because the legal system can’t do anything with their compromised evidence. Instead of realizing they’re not the people qualified to do this work, they’re just doubling down and “handing it themselves.”
cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Great. Just dump anyone you dislike as a “pedophile” and then it’s a free for all.
deathbird@mander.xyz 1 month ago
This is part of the reason why casual accusations of pedophilia have always disturbed me. Because it can lead even people who in most other circumstances would be considered pro-justice and pro-human rights into mini-Mengeles.
And I’ve seen people just throw out the accusation without even prompt or justification, just because they hate somebody (maybe for other good reasons) and want to see if it sticks. It’s fucked up.
Then there’s other cases like that one where that 18-year-old got jumped for being baited into going on a date with another 18-year-old, while under the impression that she was… at least 18. A couple of people posted about that already.
infeeeee@lemm.ee 1 month ago
This is a symptom. If police won’t do it’s job there will be some guys who will take it into their own hands. The problem is they have even less oversight than police.
DuskyRo@lemmy.world 1 month ago
ICastFist@programming.dev 1 month ago
Oh hey, it’s “won’t somebody please think of the children?” taken to the streets for internet clout! Absolutely nothing wrong can happen there! /s
ellypony@lemmy.world 1 month ago
shit gonna morph into persecuting queer people real quick.
And then when it’s pointed out a bunch of mfs are gonna say. “Why are you AFRAID?? WhAt aN odd tHinG to sAy!! they’re only going after bad people!”
like shit brother. right on brother. Im sorry. I guess all those 1920’s lynch mobs were only going after criminals too then 🤷♂️. Matter of fact I bet no innocent people were hurt, and it wasn’t because of the color of their skin at all. Only criminals! /s
WhatSay@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
I had a friend who was visiting Florida, and this vigilante group from some church setup a Grindr account to catch gay men. They made a profile of a guy in his 20s, had convos and planned to meet, then asked him to talk on some other platform, where his profile said he was underage. Keep in mind, this is just a fictional person. And the Florida court loves to toss LGBT in jail, so beware out there.
StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
I monitor far-right groups pretty intensively and a good chunk of Paedophile Hunters are key organisers of said groups.
Its also not uncommon for far-right groups to be family operations where the adults will groom their teenage children into organizing and encourage their children to date other, often older, fascist organisers.
boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 1 month ago
What this ultimately amounts to is the worst actors using a blanket justification to carry out revenge fantasies against whatever marginalized group they’re fixated on.
If you happen to be part of any of these marginalized groups, now would be the time to get armed and get dangerous. It would be great if we lived in a functioning society where this wasn’t necessary, but the failure of so many of our institutions is slowly rewinding our social fabric back to wild west times.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Bread and circuses
mhague@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nazis: If you support LGBT you’re a pedophile. And we’re already coming for you.
People, for some fucking reason: Pedophiles get fucked, do what you want to them, erase them at any cost!!
“Please hold this paper target in front of your face while I shoot at it.”
“Sounds dangerous but I see you are aiming at the paper so I should be fine.”
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Oh I get it. So this stuff gets pushed on left wing spaces. Then the left wing adopts this ethos where they say “pedo hunters aren’t good” then the right goes “oh you’re all pedophiles” and then the divide is bigger
Snowpix@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Didn’t an entire TV show get into some serious hot water for doing this sort of thing which resulted in someone committing suicide while filming an episode? These people are potentially putting themselves in serious danger if they corner a pedo who feels like they have nowhere to run or anything left to lose.
FermionWrangler@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I always knew there was something wrong with that these people were doing but couldn’t exactly put my finger on it and never talked about it because people would’ve yelled at me and used false dillema arguments like many people who criticized them back them recieved “You support pedophiles you removed”
ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 1 month ago
There’s one in the white house. Why don’t they seem to care about that one?
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 month ago
A quick word to anyone seeing this and thinking “oh that’s fine”, look into the Snowtown Massacres". That’s what it looks like when this kind of thing actually happens. Life isn’t a Tarantino film, those who accomplish their aims violently are generally very dumb.
MITM0@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Reminder, those “Pedophile Hunters” don’t really give a damn about children.
They’re sadists who are out to hurt men (Gay men are their preferred targets)
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Heh seems to me that these pedophile hunters are just violent hateful people who found a way to make their hate and violence appear righteous.
There should be no tolerance for vigilante justice in a civilized society.
rekabis@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I don’t have a problem with actual pedophiles that are caught in these dragnets.
My problem arises from the lack of rigorous and well-documented investigation into the target before shite starts popping off. As the article pointed out, there is nothing wrong with a 22yo dating an 18yo. And the problem here is a sense of vindictiveness trying to manufacture targets where not all targets are guilty of pedophilia.
So: you want to take a pipe wrench to warm over a pedophile? Make sure there is oodles of evidence that clearly and unambiguously makes the person a pedophile, and sure as shite I will look the other way. But the problem is that there is no self-reinforcing framework in place within the vigilante system to ensure and enforce this threshold of evidence. And without this system, innocent people are going to get hurt or killed.
TylerBourbon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Republicans and Church leaders everywhere are terrified.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
Senseless@feddit.org 1 month ago
I wouldn’t even be surprised if most of them are pedophiles themselves.
VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
‘I sit online all day pretending to be a teen girl and getting into dirty chats with strangers, it’s OK though because I’m doing it to stop the creeps…’
quack@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
There’s been a ton in the UK outed as predators themselves. It’s projection.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Well, there’s this case.
brusselstimes.com/…/fake-pedophile-hunter-convict…
yggstyle@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I have this questionable material for use in my honey traps.
Doom@ttrpg.network 1 month ago
100%
Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee 1 month ago
In Norway last year we had a case where 5 16-19 yo set up a sextrap for a guy in his 40s.
The teens claimed he’s a pedo, beat him, filmed it and posted it online.
All of the “pedohunters” involved were found guilty on all accounts. The guy is free and getting a big pay out from the teens.
It’s really unfortunate, but these kinds of people aren’t in it to prevent child abuse. They’re in it for themselves.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
There was a similar case that happened on a college campus in America. Five 18 year -old students, all of whom can legally consent, lured a guy toward the dorms through a dating app. When he arrived, the students swarmed him with phones out calling him a pedophile. They are now being charged.
kktv.com/…/5-college-students-charged-case-stemmi…
KneeTitts@lemmy.world 1 month ago
you just described all republican politicians
ameancow@lemmy.world 1 month ago
100%.
There is an old trope about arsonists, they either become criminals or they become firefighters.
At least with firefighters, we don’t have to worry about if the firefighter is going to get the fire in a room alone later.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
There are cases of arsonist fire fighters which is an even stronger analogy.
Those who claim to fight fires are often the ones setting them, so they can be seen as the heroes who extinguish them.
ameancow@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Also, the almost universal knee-jerk response that we have as a society broadly to child predation makes a helluva mask for trampling on the rights of others and making a scapegoat that will be condemned in the public court long before any charges are brought up.
I’m sure there are plenty of actual predators who are worried about being hit with a sting, but I have seen more than a handful clips of these rogue pedo-hunters going after like, 21-year-old boys and their 17-year-old girlfriends, and people who looked genuinely confused and seemed railroaded into meeting someone.
I know this message will never stick with the wildly reactionary and emotional viewership who needs to hear it, but we make vigilantism illegal for a damn good reason, and just because Dateline managed to stay above the waterline for the most part, that doesn’t mean some operation of randos you know nothing about on youtube have both the best intentions and the legal acumen to actually make a difference. They may well be making the problem worse by setting up situations where stings against child predators could become outlawed.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I see it as people wanting to commit righteous violence. People have violent impulses, but we usually control them. Some people with extraordinary violent tendencies go looking for a place where it’s “okay” to let them loose. This is not the only example.
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Exactly. They’re violent & hateful peple who found a way to justify it.
demunted@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Normal healthy people don’t plan to commit violent offenses on other people, unless there is a direct connection to the 3rd parties actions. Hunting people they have no connection to for fame and fortune is sickening.
sleen@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
There is an excessive usage of the word ‘hunting’. What all those people are doing is admitting that they consider people as animals, or an “acceptable” way of harassment. And just like people who where in the kkk they don’t care who that person is, but that they’re the most vulnerable minority.
KneeTitts@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I find it suspicious that they dont just go for the low hanging priest fruit in the catholic church… this does seem to be a largely religious group of people who conveniently ignore this behavior from their own kind.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
The problem is, they are going for low hanging fruit by targeting unknowns with little to no representation.
Catholic priests have the full force of the Catholic Church to protect them from legal attacks that some dinky YouTuber will not be able to combat.
Also, Catholic priests do not need to go on dating apps or websites where they could potentially get lured because they are most likely targeting the children in their parish, under their direct control.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 month ago
There may be some angry former victims.
SulaymanF@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This type of people exist in every generation, whether forming a mob to enforce segregation or engaging in pogroms.