Well the story about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand has continued to run…the BBC has now received between 27,000 to 30,000 complaints, depending on what you read. But so far I’ve not read much about the medium used to send these complaints. I’m convinced the vast majority are email or the BBC ‘Have Your Say’ part of the website. I really don’t believe these complaints are coming in via snail mail or the telephone. I may be wrong, but if not, is this the first example in the UK of the web mob?

On the one hand it’s an illustration of how the web could be used for what C.B Macpherson called the ‘Maximisation of Democracy’ - but only if there are some controls. From what I can see of the BBC ‘Have Your Say’ website, it’s possible to post as many comments as you like - do these all get counted as different ‘complaints?’ It would be possible - and not inconceivable - for the editor of the Sun or the Daily Mail to instruct all their journalists to start posting ‘complaints’ - just to get some critical mass started. 

Then of course, the hard media - the newspaper industry- is a powerful force and can again whip up the web mob by front page coverage and endless covering a story. The web mob then becomes another weapon of the establishment and powerful self-interest (such as Murdoch), rather than an independent and democratic entity in its own right.

I think some context and explanations are needed to define what form these ‘complaints’ have actually taken. At first it feels like ‘more’ democracy, but very quickly it just feels like more control by already very powerful media interests. 

If the internet is going to be part of a maximisation of democracy, it will need to have some means of validation of people before it can really be taken seriously. 

Until then, we face the danger of the web mob, stirred up by some very unpleasant self-interest.