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are the good and evil Internet The social web's other side is its opposite and involves isolation and loneliness. May 02, 2011, 4:04 PM By Ricardo Murer B.S. in Computer Science (USP) and Master's Degree in Communications (USP). Specialist in digital strategy and new technologies. Follow@rdmurer Many questions remain unanswered almost a month after the coward massacre at Tasso da Silveira Municipal School in Realengo. Besides the social and psychological factors, it is a fact that the Internet played its role in planning of the crime, the development of a religious pseudo-apocalyptic thinking, and in the videos and texts recorded by the murderer for his post mortem justification (or fame). Even sadder is the similarity of this story we revisit with other events such as: Blacksburg, USA, 2007; Columbine High School, USA, 1999; Dunblane, Scotland, 1996 and many others. A new generation of assassins is making use of the digital media to support their acts in what would be some sort of copy-and-paste of evil. Are they making use of the black side of the virtual world, an immaterial, undefined, ungoverned entity? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The Internet of good and evil is us, ever more active in it as authors, consumers and content distributors. Unbound, unscaled, uncensored. Today's digital world needs no intermediaries. The social web's alternate side is exactly its opposite and involves isolation, loneliness, overnights browsing websites, watching videos and texting in chat rooms of dubious content. One finds two virtual aspects from this scenario that boosts the psychopathic personality and assists the individual seeking to commit a crime or murder to his way: 1. Search, Find, Learn Search engines are robots incapable of reading a text, assess a video or follow the development of a chat room's topic. One obtains access to read holy books as well as racists texts from fanatic leaders. YouTube teaches us to bake bread as well as to use firearms. Unclassified or unrestricted access to content repositories is part of the cyberculture; 2. Produce, Publish and Share Have you ever tried to have your text published in a major publication? A book? It is not easy. In traditional publications every text, video or photo is evaluated by an editor specialized on the subject before being published. One of the key 1

characteristics of the web 2.0 is its capacity to provide free-of-charge tools to publish and distribute anyone's content to anyone at any time. In the digital cloud a murderer can post a video showing his criminal act just as a nun can recite her morning prayer. We should not censor cyberspace's social activities but use the technology to build smarter and more proactive tools that can select, sort and inform the authorities of crimes in advance. Unfortunately, like the minds and hearts of people, Cyberspace holds more than it reveals.