Overall 4Chan and Reddit spread bad information throughout this whole ordeal.
Almost everything that was spread over the internet turned out to be utterly false. The fact that so many of these "facts" were repeated by "reputable" news outlets is very disturbing. Some of the things I saw that were completely wrong:
* Pictures of individuals being singled out as potential suspects. Providing such information to law enforcement is one thing. Spreading those suspicions across the internet is damaging. I think it was telling that one of the most widely viewed pictures stated as the second reason for suspicion "BROWN". Yeah.
* Missing Brown student looks like suspect #2 (they looked nothing alike to me) followed by...
* Police radio ID's suspects as someone I will not name and the missing Brown student. The suspects are then discussed "by name" for some time until the actual names are released and it is obvious that this information is woefully wrong. That won't stop this association from being made for quite some time to come. Damage done.
All of the correct information came from law enforcement. I saw people enamored with the idea of crowd-sourced investigation but all it did was result in innocent people having their faces blasted across the internet and even "legitimate" newspapers. It's vigilante justice in the digital and information age. I am not impressed with untrained couch detectives scanning pictures for baseball hats and backpacks. You are looking at pictures of a major event in Boston. How many baseball hats and backpacks do you think there were? When police asked for information they weren't asking for every nut job with a magnifying glass to call and tell them everything they see in thousands of pictures while at the same time spreading that information across the internet. They were asking for people who recognized the suspects or thought they may have seen them to share that with them. I would like to see how much it cost us taxpayers for all of this bogus information that came from the internet to be recorded at the tip lines.
I know that I am being videotaped and photographed almost everywhere I go in public. That is a reality of modern life. I know that law enforcement can view that material and consider me a potential suspect in an investigation based on what they see in those materials. I do not find myself incredibly uncomfortable with that. I think it results in more crimes being solved. I also know the same is happening the other way around and that officers that commit crimes are being held accountable due to their actions having been caught on tape. What I am uncomfortable with is the idea that I could be blasted across the planet over the internet because I happened to be wearing a baseball hat at a public event where something criminal occurred. It isn't right.
I'm a big fan of the Linux, Gaming, Skyrim subreddits. I'm not trying to disparage the whole site. 4chan... I don't find much redeeming qualities in it. My point of view is that this is not a positive advancement in information sharing. It is a negative consequence of the communicative capability of the modern Internet. It is how this wonderful thing can sometimes go wrong. I did not share a single piece of information or a single picture that was not provided by or verified by law enforcement. To me it would be the same as sharing one of those stupid "like this and SoAndSo Corp. will donate to children's cancer" photos. It's stupid and I refuse to participate.
Rant off.
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