Current Events > What do you think of internet vigilantes?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I saw an article just now about how there has been a rise in amateur "to catch a predator groups" where ordinary people will form groups or work by themselves to find adults preying on children online. They then either try and report these people to police (generally, the police seem not to want to have anything to do with these groups), confront them in real life, or try and find out who they are and send damaging photos of sexualized chats to their boss or families.

The article came to my attention on a tech news aggregate site, and a lot of posters were upset that the article framed these people in a negative light, which to these posters translated to "finding pedos is bad". In reality, the people interviewed who took part in these activities seemed incredibly self-righteous and certain of their infallibility, despite a lack of law enforcement training or knowledge of legal proceedings. Other posters pointed out that there has been a rise in claiming that LGBT folks are pedos, and that this sort of thing could become dangerous for regular people as America's political divide deepens.

But overall, most people seemed to think that these people were doing a good thing and should be encouraged. What do you think CE? Here is the original article (which may be behind a paywall) if anyone wants to read it:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-disturbing-rise-of-amateur-predator-hunting-stings