Community Gang Up

A mob attack emerging from and enacted by a community, whether online or offline, where the collective weight of community opinion, action, and sanction is brought to bear against an individual or subgroup. Community gang ups are distinguished by their source—not strangers coordinating, but the community itself acting as mob. The target experiences not just attack but expulsion, the withdrawal of belonging, the transformation of what felt like home into a hostile space. Community gang ups may be organized (through community leaders calling for action) or emergent (through viral community sentiment), but they share the unique horror of being attacked by one's own people, exiled from one's own place.

Example: "She'd helped build that neighborhood association, considered them family—then a dispute escalated into a Community Gang Up, and she found herself shunned by people she'd known for decades."

Community Gang Up by Dumu The Void March 14, 2026