If you're easily upset by tales of animal abuse, I'd read the rest of this with caution


I doubt the likes of 'Anon' and /b/ will that well known to many (if) any of you, but they've garnered a reputation in the media and on the internet regarding taking on and demonstrating Scientologists as well as harassing individuals over the last few years. Sometimes there's a serious or specific reason behind it, but other times it's a bit arbitrary and uncalled for.

Anyway, over the weekend two short videos appeared on YouTube of teenager (Kenny Glenn) beating his pet cat Dusty - punching it and slamming it into tiled bathroom walls. Luckily, the cat lived but obviously the treatment it received was abhorrent.

The videos were seen and linked to on /b/ - which is an image-based internet message board and a furore broke out. /b/ is often described as the 'internet hate machine' and I think most people on here would find the contents uncomfortable, to put it politely, but the videos hit a nerve. Glenn and/or YouTube deleted the videos and suspended his account, but the videos were mirrored by '/b/tards' (posters on the /b/ message board) and the story was purposely spread to other sites and message books so the story wouldn't go away.

In very quick time, they'd linked Kenny Glenn to various other on-line accounts - practically everything connected to him that was on-line - his home address in Oklahoma, phone numbers, his school details, his father's place of work and contact details and so on.

Some almost CSI-style detective work was involved in this, comparing background elements in photographs from his Facebook account to things in the background of the YouTube videos as well as 'less than legal' computer-related activities.

The police were contacted and the information that have been gathered passed on was passed on to them. Dusty is now at a vets whilst the D.A. is meeting with lawyers for the Glenn family on Tuesday.

So, was this a 'good thing' or a 'bad thing'? Much of this involved the same group of 'anons' that have targeted Scientology over the last 12 months or so. If you were aware of those activities, has the retribution for Dusty changed your mind at all? For better or worse? Are they (still) internet bullies? Are you worried that these kinds of groups can exist who can very easily fall on either side of the moral fence? Should they have got involved at all?