A Study of the “Human Flesh” Search Engine (2010) [pdf]

This seems to be an old social network analysis of a primarily Chinese web phenomenon which entails doxing people for various reasons (including corruption in government).

The phenomenon is interesting as one example (among many others) of the democratization and 'cutting out the middle man' that the web offers: citizens taking legal and ethical matters into their own hands. It relates to things like the #metoo movement and Anonymous in the west.

Ultimately these 'courts' tend to devolve into witch-hunts and mob rule without possibility to appeal, but it doesn't mean that they don't play some positive role - in nudging law enforcement to step up their game if nothing else.

This document doesn't explore those aspects however.

I discovered this paper while lost in a Wikipedia rabbit hole. For anyone curious about the phrase “human flesh”, the paper notes it comes from a literal translation and that it might be better understood as “people-powered”.

One takeaway (certainly not the only) from the paper is that most research is done by a few participants, even as participation size increases.

Yep, a few do the heavy lifting. A good portion of the paper analyzes the crowd/participants as a whole and touches on what effects they may have on each other (I think), but I wasn't able to understand it well enough to have any thoughts.

As for the muscle-powered, on page 4 of the document there's a graphic that shows the ratios, and it's no contest. The vast majority are involved in announcing (the situation) and uploading / re-uploading (the information). Informing and spreading.

It's obvious to me in hindsight, but I wasn't expecting such a wide gulf.