yes, it exists

How a Blogger Blocked Sex Slavery

by Abigail Pesta

 

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Last spring, the Internet lit up with rumors of a Manhattan blogger who saved two Russian college students from possible human trafficking. In an exclusive interview with the targeted women, Abigail Pesta reveals their terrifying ordeal.
The Internet can be an impersonal place: You can observe the world at an aloof distance, and then just surf to another page. Manhattan resident Kathrine Gutierrez Hinds did the opposite—the unthinkable, really—and injected herself right into the lives of two young Russian women in serious danger, simply because she read about them online.
Late on a windy May night in Manhattan, Kathrine Gutierrez Hinds, a 24-year-old psychology student, rambled around her apartment, unable to sleep. Firemen had rousted her from slumber earlier in the evening, bursting into the building to fight a basement fire. At least she didn’t have to evacuate in her pajamas, she told herself, as she logged on to her laptop. That’s when she discovered an astonishing drama unfolding on the Internet—in real time.
A guy who occasionally blogged on one of her favorite sites, MetaFilter, had posted a call for help: “A Russian friend of mine may be in a dangerous situation in Washington, D.C.”...........
pic: Kathrine Gutierrez Hinds took two Russian women into her apartment, after reading about their plight on a blog. (Credit: Michael Edwards)