As the lives of two Japanese appeared to hang in the balance Thursday, their plight touched off a range of responses on the Internet, with many sniping at them for choosing to go to a war zone and others urging understanding.
A video posted Tuesday by the Islamic State group set a 72-hour deadline to pay $200 million for the lives of journalist Kenji Goto and self-styled security contractor Haruna Yukawa.
¡°Reckless¡± and ¡°irresponsible¡± was the predominant opinion by prominent bloggers and Twitter users, as armchair commentators declared the pair had brought the situation upon themselves. They questioned whether a ransom would be good use of public money.
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