Today’s monkey torture videos are the products of a digitally connected world. People who enjoy watching baby animals probed, snipped, and mutilated in horrible ways often have difficulty finding local collaborators, but online communities like “million tears”—now thankfully shuttered—can help them forge connections.
Once they do meet other like-minded souls, communication takes place through chat apps like Telegram and Signal, often using encryption.
Money is pooled through various phone apps, then sent to videographers in countries where wages are low and monkeys are plentiful. (The cases I have seen usually involve Indonesia; read my feature from last year to learn more about how these groups work.)