I’m sorry to take a really serious turn with this post, but this is an important issue about the blogosphere that I’ve been pondering all day and one that I think needs to be addressed.
For some time now I have meant to feature Kathy Sierra’s amazing blog Creating Passionate Users as a subject of “Monday Morning Inspiration”. In my opinion, it’s one of the most interesting, informative and intelligent sites on the web. Kathy is a brilliant writer and much in demand public speaker who is very, very well regarded in the blogging community. Tragically, Kathy has recently been the victim of death threats and a sick and disgusting campaign of intimidation and harassment over the internet. It’s so serious that the police are involved and Kathy has decided to cancel all of her future public engagements and cease blogging permanently out of fear for her and her daughter’s safety.
Like most of the people in the blogosphere I find this incredibly disturbing, but what was really shocking to me was that the threats weren’t just random posts by anonymous trolls, some of them came from a blog called meankids.org (since taken offline) where a number of prominent tech bloggers participated in verbal attacks and slurs against other prominent bloggers. It’s also disturbing that obviously she was at least partially targeted because she’s a prominent woman in the traditionally male-dominated tech world. The vile, sexual nature of the threats against her make this clearly a hate crime.
A few Bloggers, by led Robert Scoble – who’s also been a victim of similar recent death threats, presumably by the same individuals – are taking the week off in protest and to digest what has happened. Brand Curve’s Ron E. has responded to what’s happened by creating the logo you see at the top of this post and is encouraging people to spread it both to show support for Kathy during this terrible ordeal and to raise awareness that this isn’t acceptable in our society and that the internet’s blogging community won’t tolerate this kind of hateful, criminal behavior.
It’s very likely that the people responsible for this will be tracked down by the authorities (issuing or inciting death threats is a serious federal offense in the United States), but there’s a larger issue here. Freedom of speech is not the right to say whatever you want. It’s a responsibility and must be used appropriately.
It’s refreshing to know that the online puppetry community is usually very cordial and friendly, even when people have disagreements and/or dislike each other. Not all corners of the blogosphere are so lucky though. In my opinion it’s a short and slippery ride down from nasty, mean-spirited mainstream sites like The Superficial – which I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve read for celebrity gossip on occasion – to the kind of sites that targeted Kathy.
It’s a sad day for the internet. Let’s hope the police catch all of the people responsible and that Kathy is able to heal, move on and eventually get back to sharing her wonderful ideas, thoughts and insights with the world.