Search and Destroy

In China, it’s hard to be anonymous online in part due to a phenomenon known as the human-flesh search engine. It’s not really a search engine at all. Rather, it’s a community of message board users that seek out and punish in the real world people they find committing offensive acts online. Tom Downey explains in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine that the human flesh search engine offers a disturbing mix of justice and revenge.

Read or listen to full piece here.