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neom
"“With Vigilante, vital information is unlocked and everyone can do their part,” the company said in 2016, leaving it up to the readers’ imagination what that “part” should be."

Wow... glad they pivoted, but still, that's a dangerous perspective to take imo.

ashneo76
This and the neighborhood watch are just terrible for the society
sldksk
>“We’re a safety app. We want to keep people safe”

You’re a business. You want to turn a profit.

rchaud
It's a free social networking app. They want to be able to cash out, not be profitable. Engagement, DAUs and MAUs are what matter most.
knolax
Someone needs to sue these people into bankruptcy.
MaxBarraclough
Is it illegal to call someone an arson suspect?

I imagine that wrongly calling someone an arsonist would be libel/slander, but I wonder if things change when you include the word suspect.

emteycz
I don't think stuff changes that much based just on what words were said. The outcome matters a lot.
byteshock
While it's not illegal to call someone a suspect, putting a bounty on someone's head might be. You're essentially endangering someone's life. If the person was harmed, they could easily win a massive lawsuit.
knolax
He wasn't actually an arson suspect, so it's defamation either way.
hdiskdjj
Isn't Amazon's Ring exactly that, or do I misunderstand something?
mc32
What’s the difference between this and Twitter mobs?
throwaway0a5e
Being location specific provides a veneer of legitimacy.
mc32
I would come from a different angle. Twitter is worse because the target is way more abstract, removed, so the Twitter vigilantes are almost acting on a conceptual plane and don’t care about real life implications.
colejohnson66
Probably not much, but the victim would have a better chance suing Citizen than Twitter. Twitter polices it’s platform, but Section 230 provides a good shield for them against user content. Citizen, OTOH, isn’t protected by Section 230 because the company itself issued the notification.

Disclaimer: IANAL

alisonkisk
Not just a notification, a Livestream with repeated misinformation and aggressive goading.
rchaud
Twitter mobs send words to famous/semi-famous people they have never met.

This on the other hand looks more like a bounty board for self-appointed neighborhood sheriffs.

mc32
Twitter trolls act like reeves themselves looking for the people they have an axe to grind with and ruining lives just the same.
gverrilla
Does anyone here also feel like this article was way too long for the content?
alisonkisk
> OnAir is a new product with strict validation protocols, which we failed to follow.

Not sure that's how it works.

Gunax
People have been offering rewards for 'information about' or 'arrest of' forever. But as soon as a tech company does it, it's evil.

The question we should be asking isn't 'what happens if they get it wrong' but 'what happens if they got it right'?

cowvin
The line being crossed is that usually private citizens offer rewards for "information leading to the arrest" of someone. They don't put a bounty on actually arresting the guy because that's the job of the professional police departments.

And both of your questions regarding what if they get it wrong or right are quite interesting to think about.