- Update :
Brendan Sokaluk : Facebook confirms removing arson vigilante groups, Brigid Andersen, ABC, February 17, 2009; Sokaluk’s trial by police and media, Greg Barns, Crikey, February 18, 2009.
Kenny Glenn : Allegedly, the boys, 14 and 16, uploaded several more videos two weeks earlier, which included more abuse of Dusty as well as another black-and-white cat whose name is not known at this time. Both cats have been removed from the abusive home and will be adopted into better homes. Kenny Glenn and Weston Glenn are facing two charges of animal cruelty in Lawton, Oklahoma, and go to trial later this week.
“Facebook vigilantes, frustrated at a court order protecting a man charged with lighting one of the deadly Victorian bushfires, which killed at least 11 people, have published [Brendan Sokaluk’s] photograph and address on the social networking site and threatened his life… Links to Sokaluk’s profiles on MySpace and MyYearBook were widely circulated.” ~ Vigilantes publish alleged arsonist’s image online, Asher Moses, The Age, February 16, 2009.
Sokaluk’s MySpace profile, however, has been deleted, and his profile on MyYearBook is set to Private.
Further: “THOUSANDS of people who posted messages of hate and threats on the internet relating to accused arsonist Brendan Sokaluk in the days after he was charged potentially face serious criminal charges, lawyers and internet regulators warn. Since Friday, at least five groups on social networking site Facebook had attracted about 3500 people, with most users either threatening or inciting violence towards the accused…” ~ Online hate mail threat to arson case, Selma Milovanovic, The Age, February 17, 2009.
The New Zealand Herald claims ‘Accused arsonist angry at girlfriend’s rejection’ (February 16, 2009):
…On the website’s homepage [that is, his now-deleted MySpace profile], he attacks a former girlfriend among rants full of spelling mistakes.
“I’m a young happy male who wants to meet a young loven female to marrid,” he writes.
“My interest are to enjoy life to the fallest and not with …… because she r***s behind your back and lies a lot.”
“I’d like to meet my sole mate not some old hag.”
“Sex sells but love larst for ever.”
Sokaluk writes: “l don,t read books because they put me to sleep. my heroe is mother earth with out her we all would be dead.”
…
Sokaluk logged on to another social networking website, myYearbook, last Wednesday, four days after the hellfire on Saturday, February 7.
He was arrested two days later on Friday.
He describes his mood as “dirty” because “no one love (sic) him”.
His quote is “looken for a young wife to shear my wealf with her”.
He received Valentine’s Day greetings from half a dozen women on the site…
Duncan Riley @ The Inquisitr (Bushfire arsonist Brendan Sokaluk worships mother earth on spooky MySpace page, February 15, 2009) claims “His MySpace profile also suggests that Sokaluk has an affiliation to a US religious group by the name of “The Truth of God,” a group known to hold extreme views against women clergy and gay people.”
The two Facebook groups are Brendan Sokaluk, the Victoian [sic] Bushfires Arsonist, must burn in hell and make it know [sic] Brendan Sokaluk is the man who was arrested for arson.
Dr Matthew Rimmer, senior lecturer in law at the Australian National University, said Facebook is in much the same position as any other media organisation.
“Much like a newspaper, Facebook needs to be careful what it publishes because it’s not just the author who is liable. Sometimes the publisher is liable,” he said.
Dr Rimmer said Facebook users needed to think carefully before posting. Individuals who posted comments that breach confidentiality, privacy or defamation laws, or any relevant court orders, could be held liable.
“Just as one could be personally held liable for writing a defamatory letter that gets published in a newspaper, one could be held liable for publishing something defamatory or breaching a court order on Facebook,” he said.
“The reason there are suppression orders in the first place is to ensure a fair trial. You don’t want there to be a mistrial in some way because the jury has been prejudiced by, for instance, reading things on Facebook.
“Perversely, making comments on Facebook about the persons alleged to have engaged in arson might be counter-productive in terms of legal action brought against them.”
See also : Will Brendan Sokaluk ever come to trial?, Greg Barns, Crikey, February 16, 2009: “That Mr Sokaluk is an as-yet innocent man appears to be completely forgotten by millions of people… [presiding Victorian magistrate John] Klestadt was faced with the reality that the UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, couldn’t give a toss about the rights of the accused and his safety when it published his name and alleged details about Sokaluk yesterday — all available for every Victorian to read on the net. And it was not alone in ignoring the suppression order…”
Bonus!
In another example of vigilantism, two teenage boys have been tracked down after rather stupidly uploading to YouTube a video of one of them — glennspam1, aka “Kenny Glenn” of Lawton, OK (USA) — abusing a cat named “Dusty”. Unlike the mountains of nutzi BS which saturates the site, the video has been withdrawn from YouTube; like everything else on the Intertubes, it’s still available online if you search for it. It’s pretty awful — not just the abuse, but the attitude embodied in Kenny’s actions. Thus it’s not that uncommon for young boys to take delight in such things, and animals — being basically defenceless — are obviously regular targets for their sadism. Like other forms of abuse, it flourishes in secrecy. Going public, on the other hand, is stoopid — especially with cats like 4chan around…
Dylan (New Media Research Studio) writes:
Anonymous? Sorry kid. Or, Why You Shouldn’t Torture a Cat and Upload it to YouTube.
…Sitting in his house “Kenny Glenn” probably never thought messing up his cat would bring the internet’s rage on him [or] get him in serious trouble. I should mention that even though I know this kid’s phone number, the school he goes to, his parent’s names and all of their contact information, the names of all of his teachers, the location of his father’s business, and a link to photo of his house, I have no knowledge of hacking and I had to do literally nothing expect click a few links to find that information. I’m not the only one who knows that information either, it’s all free, legal, and has already been seen by probably thousands of people. In fact, if you followed any of those links above you’ve already learned a lot about a complete stranger. Last week we discovered that privacy online is dying or already dead and this is just a punctuation on that thought. If you think that just because you’re wearing a mask and can’t be identified visually you can stay under the radar, then you’re just asking for a very rude awakening. “Kenny Glenn” is a special case, because he just happened to hit the wrong nerve with the wrong people on a Sunday afternoon, but it shows that if somebody or a group of people has got the energy they can use the internet to find enough information to make your life hell. Whether or not you’re a cat abuser or not, the moral of the story is we need to think about what our cyber footprint looks like and how this could potentially affect our real lives. The internets are serious business.
Rather than have the police barge-arseing around online wouldn’t it be simpler to run some dead-pools on the loudest vigilantes?
Fight fire with fire is the anarchistic way.
I agree there are real dangers in this new ‘Brinworld’.
One workaround was floated on the cypherpunks list and that was a virtualized data-base. You have all your vital details encrypted and circulating via large remailers and P2P ( similar to Freenet ) and no one can access them without you knowing. This open-source and distributed data-base would cut out the middle-man – cut out the state. All the more reason for anarchists to take it up. It’s revolutionary technology.
We don’t forgive, we don’t forget, we’re legion, etc.
What is a dead pool, professor dearest?
there’s an even worse case in the Philippines. check this out. a University of the Philippines student named Joseph Carlo Candare stomped a beloved school cat in cold blood. If there are any organizations in the US or any other international organizations that can help the Philippines animal welfare groups prosecute this maniac… please help. we want this guy punished.
http://burymeinthisdress.com/blog/2009/04/17/joseph-carlo-candare-a-sociopath/