Plundering Network Groups Constitute Forcible Theft

If someone on the internet forcibly takes over another person's online group, changes the ownership of the group, and forces the group members to abandon what they previously learned and instead study the dharma that the group-seizer has determined, then the group members' rights of belonging and autonomy are also changed—this constitutes stealing. If this person was instigated by others or by an organization, then those others or that organization are the principal thieves, and the person who plundered the group is an accomplice to the theft; both are guilty of the crime of stealing and robbery, robbing the group's resources, including its members.

If someone maliciously incites, turns, and draws away the administrators and core members of a group, and sows discord between the group members and the group owner, such behavior also constitutes stealing—stealing the group's resources and its members. If this is done to the group of a monastic, then it is the offense of destroying the Sangha Jewel's propagation of the Dharma, the offense of stealing by alienating sentient beings from the Sangha Jewel, and the offense of stealing the resources of the Three Jewels. The nature of this is no longer merely theft—it is far more vile than stealing. This is absolutely not something a Buddhist practitioner would do, nor is it something an ordinary person would do. It is like the conduct of demon disciples acting at the behest of demons—destroying the Three Jewels, destroying the Sangha, destroying Buddhism. The Kṣitigarbha Sūtra says:毁谤三宝，破佛身血，污梵诬僧，两舌斗乱，非理毁用，轻法慢教。Such karmic offenses are hellish karma, receiving the evil retribution of the hells.