lynch mob

1. A group or crowd of people seeking to kill someone, usually by hanging, without legal process or authority. May refer to William Lynch or Charles Lynch, two American Revolutionaries known for administering extralegal punishments. Back in the 1800s, a perceived criminal was often killed by a lynch mob, courtesy of townspeople taking the law into their own hands.

2. By extension, criticism or other such negative attention from a group of people, especially online. I'm pretty wary of posting online these days. It feels like every social media platform has a lynch mob that is just waiting to attack people they disagree with.