Recently I came across an article that perfectly reinforced our discussion of the internet as the perfect panopticon. Kurt Greenbaum, the Director of Social Media for the St. Loius Dispatch, made headlines all over the web a couple of days ago by posting a seemingly harmless blog asking the audience, What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever eaten? And did you like it? If this "Director of Social Media" knew anything about the internet, he would understand that he was opening himself up to all kinds of vulgar jokes concerning male and female genitalia. When he finally got the inevitable response, his Victorian sensibilities were so offended he took it upon himself to break his own website's explicit terms of service and track the IP address of the commenter down to a local school. He then alerted the school that someone was leaving "inappropriate" comments from their computers, and a man in the IT department lost his job.

This ridiculously immature story would be tragic for free speech if weren't for the dual nature of the gaze online. On the one hand, there was Greenbaum, monitoring his websites comments and punishing those who violated his sensibilities. On the other hand, there was the mass majority of the internet watching Greenbaum, and their anger with his censorship has lead to a public outcry for him to lose his job as well. Based on prior similar cases, it is very likely they will get their wish.

http://www.kurtgreenbaumisapussy.com/