The new mob lynchings

I didn't go to SXSW Interactive due to my honeymoon, which was a much better conference with more interesting participants and panels. I did pay attention to some extent to panel write ups, and some of the backchannel communications via Twitter. They often annoyed me, sine I wasn't there but most of my Twitter pals were.

I have followed the Zuckerberg/Lacey story (too many links to bother finding the best one here, sorry) with avid interest. It has seemed more and more clear to me that SXSW played host to a lynching via social media. I am worried about lynchings of public women (I cannot find the Slate - or was it Salon - story about how the public fascination with Britney/Paris/Lindsay amounts to child abuse). This lynching in particular was awful because the woman in question isn't even setting herself up as an object. She's just a mediocre business journalist.

Here's a great statistical analysis of the Zuckerberg/Lacey interview that really adds something to this conversation and gives us reasons to worry about social neworking and backchannels. I really, really recommend that you read it, as it has something important to say about mob behavior. We online elites are not immune to it. I wish I had time to write a feature length magazine article about the new mob lynchings, maybe Kee Hinckley does. This is a major piece of thinking - my congrats.