Blogger Receives Death Threats

THREATS SHOW DARK SIDE OF WEB

Death threats against a popular tech blogger this week have ignited an online firestorm about free speech, civility and sexism on the Internet.

The threats against Kathy Sierra, an author who promotes the notion of emphasizing the needs of the user in Web site design, have sparked a Webwide debate on the nature of online discourse.

The incident and its aftermath have drawn back the curtain on a computer culture in which the more outrageous the comment, the more attention it gets. It's a world that many women in particular see as still dominated by men and where personal attacks often are defended on grounds of free speech.

In addition, many of the newest tools of the Internet are coming into play. Blogs and online communities were supposed to herald an era in which "the wisdom of crowds" guided online behavior to a higher plane. Instead, instances of mob rule appear to be leading the discussion into the sewer.

Some observers believe the incident eventually could serve as a warning to Web communities to increase accountability and stamp out the vitriol that characterizes much of online conversation.

"We need to say this is not acceptable behavior," said Tim O'Reilly, CEO of Sebastopol's O'Reilly Media, which publishes Sierra's books and runs the ETech conference where Sierra was scheduled to speak this week. "If you start making offensive comments, they will be deleted from a blog. Don't give people that platform."

Sierra detailed the incident on her blog on Monday, and the site has received more than 1,200 comments since then. At issue are a series of threats, filed by an unknown person for unknown reasons, on Sierra's blog and on a group of sites dedicated to criticizing the philosophies of Sierra and others.

Hundreds of bloggers have offered up their own posts in her defense, including many from women in the tech world who say they've been the victims of similar threats and harassment. In Sierra's case, no one is clear about why she would be singled out for such particularly nasty threats.

"Ever since the whole blog storm erupted, a lot of people are writing about this on their own blogs in support of Kathy," said David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, a San Francisco firm that helps chart what's happening in the blogosphere. He cited prominent tech bloggers like Robert Scoble, Thomas Hawk and Hugh MacLeod for "linking to Kathy's post and showing solidarity for her. That's the powerful aspect of community, standing up in opposition to the kind of abusive, misogynistic comments that were posted."

Yet some of Sierra's supporters have begun to resemble vigilantes running in the other direction as they lash out at the people she singled out as creating the climate for the threats.

"Going out and forming a mob to go after somebody before you know what's going on isn't good either," Sifry said. "Sometimes you need to allow a certain amount of time to pass to understand the facts of a situation like this."

The incident has its roots in a dispute that started online last month when Tara Hunt, a tech activist from San Francisco, posted on her blog about the importance of having a "higher purpose" in Web work. A wide-ranging discussion ensued, centered on some posts by Chris Locke, who had achieved some fame in Internet marketing circles as co-author of a 1999 book, "The Cluetrain Manifesto," which touts the notion of letting customers guide companies.

Locke, Hunt and others then engaged in a debate, which spilled over to other blogs. Hunt accused Locke and his cohorts of behaving "like the mean kids in high school," and Locke then started a critical Web site called meankids.org. Then Sierra defended Hunt on that Web site.

According to Sierra's online account, someone then posted a call for a noose around her neck. Anonymous posters put up pictures of Sierra's head next to a noose and started making sexual comments about her. Sierra also received anonymous threats on her own site.

On Saturday, meankids.org went down, and a new site, unclebobism.com, went up. It featured a digitally altered photo of Sierra being strangled in women's panties and included graphic and sexually violent comments.

Sierra was alarmed and notified police. She canceled plans to speak at O'Reilly's tech conference in San Diego. On Monday, she posted the news, and the blogosphere went wild.

On Tuesday, Locke published his defense, saying that he did not make the threats, that the meankids.org site was meant to be amusing and "a lot of fun" and that the meankids.org and unclebobism.com Web sites were taken down when the "tasteless posts" appeared.

Locke also acknowledged that he is a critic of Sierra and stated that he would not apologize to her. He said that her singling him out for responsibility for the attacks on her amounted to "character assassination."

Sierra said Wednesday that O'Reilly actually had brokered a conversation between herself and Locke, both of whom live in Boulder, Colo. She said that they had exchanged some constructive e-mails in which Locke said he would help try to find out who made the comments. Locke did not respond to an e-mail Wednesday afternoon.

"All I care about is finding out who it is," Sierra said. "Then I can end the police thing. That would be my preference."

And while Sierra was "overwhelmed" by the outpouring of support and affection for her online, she was also startled to see many people writing that she had overreacted.

"It's easy to say, 'Get over yourself, this is the Internet,' but would I bet my mother, daughter or sister's life on it if those pictures showed up and I didn't know exactly who was behind it?" she said. "Even if the odds are low, the stakes are high."

Sierra said she remained mystified at what could have prompted someone to say such things about her. She said that some of the people she named on her site had told her, "You're too optimistic. You paint too happy a picture."

"The more visibility you have, then the more people pay attention," she said. "And if they find you annoying, then they're resentful that people are listening to this obvious idiot."

Sierra, who is in her 40s, was a game developer who went to work at Sun Microsystems, where she started a Web community around Sun's Java software, called javaranch.com. She started a series of technical books for O'Reilly called Head First and is working on a book with her husband, "Creating Passionate Users." She was the opening keynote speaker at this month's South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

Women who spend a lot of time online said Sierra's experience is sadly common.

"This has been going on for a long time," said Susan Herring, a professor of information science and linguistics at the University of Indiana who has studied gender dynamics in online communication since the 1990s. "There is a minority of men, for the most part, who enjoy antagonizing women, particularly when they become more visible. Kathy became more visible, on her blog, taking controversial positions, and triggered a lot of misogyny."

Somehow, the mere act of typing at a keyboard often emboldens people to make stronger assertions than they might in a face-to-face conversation, she said. Adding the anonymity that the Internet offers only increases the rage.

"It brings out the animal in us a little more, because the veneer of civilization is removed when nobody knows who you are," Herring said.

Some veteran observers of the online scene, while acknowledging the Internet's role, said not to blame the technology for something that's been happening since the dawn of humanity.

O'Reilly drew an analogy to talk radio, saying that while some of it is filled with hateful comments, other shows, like "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio, maintain a culture of civility. If someone tried making vitriolic comments there, he said, "they'd be cut off."

The same rule should apply to Web communities, he said. "Don't tolerate that. Don't allow it. Delete their comments.

"Should we be allowing anonymity?" O'Reilly asked. "There are certain cases where anonymity is important for frank dialogue. But if the comments are no longer constructive, then they don't belong here."