I, like many people all over the globe, think what happened to Cecil the Lion was absolutely unacceptable and just plain sad.  According to the African Lion Working Group, there are currently less than 32,000 lions in Africa compared to 100,000 in the 1960s.  Hopefully, as Jane Goodall has suggested, Cecil’s death will bring much needed attention to endangered animals and the need for clarity of regulations.

What I find troublesome is the rise of the Internet Mob mentality and the precedent it is setting.  After Dentist Walter Palmer shot and killed Cecil, the web descended upon him with people uncovering personal information about him and his family and not hesitating to publish it.  People stormed his dentist office (that employed more than a dozen other people than Palmer) forcing it to shut down.  On Twitter and on the practice’s public Facebook page, people made threats of physical violence.

The entire reason we have established a justice system with a procedure is to prevent against tyranny of the major and mob retribution.  And sometimes the mob “gets it wrong.” As a recent article in Vox news points out, the internet deemed similar online mob tactics unacceptable during “Gamergate” and the harassment conducted against female journalists. Furthermore, what if the information reported isn’t accurate? A few days after Cecil was killed, news agencies started to report that his brother Jericho was killed by another hunter.  This turned out to be entirely false.

Point being, in the age of instant access to news and the demand for stories to be updated in real time, it is an impossible expectation to place on news agencies that they generate a complete and holistic story immediately.  Even in instances where people have access to all of the facts – is the internet justified in responding the way that it did?  What about Walter Palmer’s family, his neighbors, and the people employed by his dentist office who have all, arguably, had their lives ruined?  What about a situation that is less clear cut where the facts aren’t clear to the public?

When the internet calls for someone to be “hanged” (like PETA did), we need to prevent the mob from playing the role of executioner.  Not only is the mob quick to jump to conclusions, it subverts procedural justice – a bedrock principle of this country.  Besides, re-directing our energy to advocating for endangered species is much more productive and can have a greater (and more positive) impact.