News of Cecil the lion's untimely demise has been flooding forums and Facebook pages for about a week now, and if you're like me, you were probably wondering why this particular lion—one of over 600 killed for sport by foreign hunters every year—is making the Internet explode.

Cecil was (apparently) a very special animal; well-known by the locals and officially part of a Zimbabwe Wildlife Reserve. So when American dentist Walter Palmer shot him on a game hunt the international response was beyond livid.

I'm not interested in saying much about the incident itself. What's more interesting to me is the collaborated campaign to destroy Palmer's life which followed, because it's a terrifying example of how social media and mob mentality can make potentially anyone public enemy number one overnight.

Protesters have staged themselves outside Palmer's dental practice in Massachusetts, while a barrage of terrible Yelp! reviews has blacklisted his business. If he manages to avoid prosecution (and that's very much up for debate) the aftermath of this incident will follow him forever.

Does he deserve it? Maybe, maybe not. The answer means very little to hordes of outraged keyboard warriors trying to destroy any chance he has of a normal life.

Zimbabwe's government is accusing Palmer of luring a lion outside a wildlife preserve's borders and shooting it with a bow, tracking it another 40 hours, and finally finishing it with a rifle before removing the head and leaving the body to rot.

It sounds pretty objectionable, but did he actually know the hunt was illegal? American tourists hire guides who are responsible for getting the proper permits and leading them to a legal animal. In Palmer's case, it's possible his biggest mistake was not questioning suspicious circumstances.

Regardless, the point is that (in the eyes of the Internet) one viral mistake is enough to make you the worst human being alive. It's disturbingly easy for people to dehumanize others in the name of popular trends, and what's in this month is a witch-hunt.

There is currently a petition calling for Palmer's extradition to Zimbabwe to face up to a decade in prison for something he likely had no idea was against the law. Over 140,000 signatures have already been added

The collective animosity for this man is so heated that trying to have any kind of productive discussion about big game hunting—which raises millions towards conservation each year—has become paramount to supporting poachers.

It's a chilling trend, and for those of you content to write these cases off as only happening to "bad people," how comfortable would you be letting your favorite social media site act as your judge and jury?