I know sometimes my blog posts are hopeful or a bit sarcastic, but sometimes I dip into the serious stuff too. Like today, when 40 or so people rallied in front of the Halifax authorities’ office to pressure officials to prosecute the boys who allegedly attacked 17-year-old rape victim, Rehtaeh Parsons. Rehtaeh, who later hanged herself, was just taken off life support a week ago.

It’s tragic. And thanks to the feigned omni-presence of the internet, we can follow the case as it evolve.

The photo above, for instance, came from the account of Brett Ruskin, who reported this masked man was giving a speech at the protest.

Another Twitter user posted about a live Facebook stream of the event.

And there’s no shortage of insider information.

You can see the Facebook page chronicling the event here. Or you can dip into the opposition’s Facebook page which supports the boys and platforms the quote, “Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten the wrong half.”

This is all of course part of the public reaction to the teenage rape case that has attracted international media attention because of the allegedly poor response of local officials. (The parents claim it took 10 months for officials to interview the boys accused of raping the girl and then texting and posting graphic pictures of the scene online.)

And of course if the bare details of a possible gang rape and humiliation campaign don’t deliver a lot of intensity to start with, it perhaps grows even more high octane with the addition of Hacker group Anonymous. The group claims to know the identity of the accused and is threatening to release their names if the investigation isn’t reopened. And they seem to have the attention of Justice Minister Ross Landy because she is mandating the case be revisited.

Anonymous is a group of perhaps loosely coordinated, clandestine “hacktivists” who make use of information collected from around the world for the purpose of changing some societal outcome.

And by garnering the attention of the world, they are mobilizing citizens into action. Since their involvement in Rahtaeh’s case, an online petition calling for further investigation jumped from 6,000 to 60,000 signatures in just a few days. And by Wednesday, the words ‘Nova Scotia’–the Canadian province where this all took place–were trending on Twitter worldwide.

But is community-driven justice, albeit mob justice, the right answer? Rehtaeh’s mom doesn’t think so.

“I want the justice system to go after those boys for sending those pictures, she was 15 years old,” Parsons said. “I don’t want people to go after those boys. People are threatening to do that.”

Since Rehtaeh’s story became public, there has been outrage expressed online.

Parsons took to Facebook to tell her daughter’s story and shame the unnamed alleged perpetrators. Wednesday morning, an online petition calling for an inquiry into the police investigation had garnered more than 6,000 signatures. By Wednesday night that number jumped to more than 60,000 signatures.

“I don’t want more bullying. Rehtaeh wouldn’t want more bullying. I don’t think that’s justice,” Parsons said.

So what about it? Is this the world’s way of returning to a more connected sense of community where everyday citizens protect their most vulnerable? Or is this, like the quote from the opposition’s Facebook page suggests, likely to rally mobs around half truths? Is Rehtaeh’s mom right that unchecked vigilante movements will compound the problem with more violence?