Monday, April 13, 2013, became one of the darkest days in Boston’s recent history when two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street. Three people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed instantly. Hundreds more were injured, many of them seriously. Days of fear followed as police began a manhunt for those responsible for this heinous act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With thousands of people participating in the marathon as runners and spectators, law enforcement quickly turned to the public for help, a step that was somewhat unusual at the time (Wadhwa, 2013). Because the bombs exploded so close to the finish line, police and the FBI knew there was plenty of video footage, both from surveillance cameras in the area and from participants in the event, and they asked the public to send in anything that might help the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, what began as a simple crowdsourcing request from the FBI to gather evidence from the public quickly evolved into an ugly digital witch hunt, giving credence to the fears, prejudices, and suspicions of the crowd while distributing guilt and innocence based on scraps of circumstantial evidence (Wadhwa, 2013). Within hours, several men, all of Middle Eastern descent, were outed by the public on social media platforms, such as Reddit, as possible suspects. They became innocent victims of racial profiling and scapegoating and their lives changed overnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While crowdsourcing can be an extremely powerful tool for obtaining information in a short period of time, it is important to realize that it can also have negative effects and hinder rather than help investigations, as was the case after the Boston Marathon bombing. Notwithstanding the FBI’s instructions not to draw false conclusions, law enforcement agencies were unable to prevent people from trying to conduct their own investigations, passing along a lot of false information and invading the privacy of innocent people. Thanks to the power of social media, events today are happening in real time. A person sitting at home can access vast, detailed information about an event as it happens, on a much larger scale than in the past. It’s unlikely that this trend will ever reverse since people love to speculate and gossip. Now we just do it collectively and publicly (Wadhwa, 2013). And, unfortunately, all too often at the expense of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While many people tried to do the right thing by providing video and photo evidence so the FBI could find the perpetrators, others wanted to solve the case themselves and\/or use the event as an opportunity for sensationalism and spreading hatred against Muslims. On Reddit, online groups formed within hours of the bombing, spreading not only vivid photos of the aftermath of the attack, but also pictures and names of men they assumed were responsible for the bombing, without regard to whether or not this information was actually true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an effort to prevent further rumors, the FBI eventually released pictures of the two main suspects, but that backfired as well. Within an hour, social media incorrectly identified suspect No. 1 as Salah Barhoum and suspect No. 2 as Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student. Ironically, Sunil Tripathi’s parents had innocently posted information on social media to help find him, as he had been missing since March 16. Instead of finding their missing son, they found themselves at the center of a media circus and bombarded with hate messages (Connolly et al., 2015), all because a Reddit user had posted pictures comparing Sunil’s facial features to the face that would later be identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. (Kang, 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the decision to crowdsource was likely made with the best of intentions, it raises many ethical questions. Even if the men responsible for this terrorist attack were eventually found, was it worth hurting innocent people along the way? Should law enforcement continue to use the power of social media to solve crimes? With so much misinformation being spread on social media sites, should social media companies like Reddit have a greater responsibility in preventing misinformation, especially when it affects the lives of innocent people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope to be able to answer these and other questions in my upcoming case study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discussion Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Further Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Connolly, P., Althaus, R. A., & Boyd Skipper, R. (2015, May 1). Social Media and the Boston Marathon Bombing – An Ethics Case Study. Santa Clara University. Retrieved August 19, 2023, from https:\/\/www.scu.edu\/ethics\/focus-areas\/internet-ethics\/resources\/social-media-and-the- boston-marathon-bombing\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kang, J. C. (2013, Jul 28). CROWD-SOURCING A SMEAR. New York Times Magazine, <\/em>, 36-42,50-51. https:\/\/fitchburgstate.idm.oclc.org\/login?url=https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/magazines\/crowd-sourcing-smear\/docview\/1416765094\/se-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rahmanzadeh, S., Leong, J., Riley, S., Leuci, S., & Schwartz, R. (2013, April 18). Teen: I Am Not the Boston Marathon Bomber. ABC News. Retrieved August 19, 2023, from https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Blotter\/teen-boston-marathon-bomber\/story?id=18990057#.UX A6QYobqp0.twitter<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suicide of Sunil Tripathi. (2023, June 25). In Wikipedia. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Suicide_of_Sunil_Tripathi#:~:text=Tripathi%20had%20actu ally%20been%20missing,been%20officially%20identified%20and%20apprehended.&te xt=Providence%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%20U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wadhwa, T. (2013, April 22). Lessons From Crowdsourcing The Boston Bombing Investigation. Forbes. Retrieved August 19, 2023, from https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/tarunwadhwa\/2013\/04\/22\/lessons-from-crowdsourcing-the-boston-marathon-bombings-investigation\/?sh=5df05cd44424<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday, April 13, 2013, became one of the darkest days in Boston’s recent history when two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street. Three people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed instantly. Hundreds more were injured, many of them seriously. Days of fear followed as police began…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,4,6,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boston-marathon","tag-case-study","tag-crowdsourcing","tag-ethics","tag-racial-profiling","tag-scapegoating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/commethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n