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Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

vice.com

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Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#21

Post by vmception »

> Citizen does moderate comments, but "two people having an argument about whether or not someone’s comment is racist drives engagement,"

LOL, my publicist does this on linkedin and other places for us because people are gullible.

Source article: Executive of does a thing

0 engagement, nobody knows

Social Media version: [First] Executive of does a thing

15,000 comments, 2 million reach, supporters and detractors argue with each other on the headline creating more engagement. Messages role in. Its perfect and yes we think you are all dumb. Always remember who is shaking the bottle that you’re inside of.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#22

Post by wearywanderer »

grenoire wrote: post #19

American HN readers: Is everything alright? It seems a new kind of on-the-edge over there. Does it truly feel unsafe to the extent that people resort to violent and intrusive systems like these?

The wealthy have always hired private security.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#23

Post by shadowgovt »

grenoire wrote: post #19

American HN readers: Is everything alright? It seems a new kind of on-the-edge over there. Does it truly feel unsafe to the extent that people resort to violent and intrusive systems like these?

Everything is not alright, but increased crime rates are only a small part of that.

Perception is, generally, very divorced from reality, and people don't have the fundamental skills to recognize that or cross-check their information.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#24

Post by cratermoon »

munk-a wrote: post #14
jakelazaroff wrote: post #6

> Citizen, using a new livestreaming service it had just launched called OnAir, would catch the suspect live on air, with thousands of people watching. I'm sorry, is this describing real life or an episode of Black Mirror? It's so blatantly dystopian that I'm at a loss for words.

Cue some muggers becoming celebrities due to executing their actions in flamboyant outfits, it'll be the next professional wrestling!

See also "A Clockwork Orange"

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#25

Post by wearywanderer »

petermcneeley wrote: post #15

Perhaps this is a mere symptom of some other problem. In Canada I dont personally recall witnessing crime in my adult life. If I saw someone doing something criminal today I would just you know... call the cops. Perhaps in the USA the lived experience is somewhat different? Maybe more crime? Maybe the police dont show up?

It depends on the city and it depends on the crime. If you see somebody vandalizing property in Seattle and call the cops, they probably won't show up (sample size of 3 for me.)

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#27

Post by slakrems »

shadowgovt wrote: post #20
getcrunk wrote: post #9

It's crazy watching the world turn into a dystopia and being powerless to stop it. It not just about this company. If they fail another will replace it. Society seems to be on a convergent path with dystopian scifi. This, Chicago police automated policing program (detects crime before it happenes and actually hurt innocent people), racially biased facial recognition. I read an article today about some DNA software be…

Dystopian sci-fi (cyberpunk in particular) did a pretty good job of looking at emergent technology and human nature and extrapolating.

Can’t wait for the live streamed rapes! /s

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#28

Post by banannaise »

grenoire wrote: post #19

American HN readers: Is everything alright? It seems a new kind of on-the-edge over there. Does it truly feel unsafe to the extent that people resort to violent and intrusive systems like these?

It doesn't feel unsafe. Apps like this are just people with a violence fetish getting off, not that having a lot of those in your country is particularly pleasant either.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#29

Post by neom »

About 5 years ago I met these guys when I was building a smart city startup in NYC. We helped cities unify their data from various vendors they use, one of the data streams was a computerized 911 dispatch. Vigilante (at the time) was interested in getting access to the 911 dispatch API. I had a long conversation with them and they couldn't understand/answer any difficult questions - I was extremely uncomfortable- nevertheless, I took it to a few cities and floated the idea of allowing them to tap in, some cities seemed marginally interested but wanted to provide access to the data with a 10+ minute delay on it so as to prevent ambulance chasing/vigilantism... of course this was useless to them, they needed real time, so they stuck to transcribing 911 dispatch from the radio waves.

Given they couldn't/wouldn't ask basic questions about safety, I'm not at all surprised this is happening.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#30

Post by cratermoon »

petermcneeley wrote: post #15

Perhaps this is a mere symptom of some other problem. In Canada I dont personally recall witnessing crime in my adult life. If I saw someone doing something criminal today I would just you know... call the cops. Perhaps in the USA the lived experience is somewhat different? Maybe more crime? Maybe the police dont show up?

Crime in the US is relatively low, except in a few urban areas, and even then it's restricted to just a few neighborhoods.

Things like this are symptom of racism, classism, and xenophobia. https://www.npr.org/2016/07/28/487560886/is-trumps-call-for-...

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