Reddit’s Find Boston Bombers Thread Moderator Is Full of Regrets

boston.com

The premise was simple: Use the millions of Reddit users to find the Boston Marathon bombers. The more help, the better, right?

But as the new documentary The Thread tracks, Reddit’s foray into the bombing manhunt rapidly spiraled into an online mob slinging false accusations. And at the center of it all was Chris Ryves.

I think citizens journalism definitely has its place in today's society especially considering that most major media is corporate owned and the narratives controlled but people need to be responsible if they choose to engage in such. I'm sure that the intention of the thread was noble... catch the monsters but a lot of innocent people were emotionally damaged on top of being traumatized from the event itself.

a reply to: Kali74

The problem is that too many people like to pretend they are somehow more talented or skilled than the hundreds of people actually investigating a case, people who have trained, studied, and worked in the field, for decades.

I watched this unfolding here on this very forum too, with people posting photos of entirely innocent people claiming they must be evil terrorists or part of some big government conspiracy, and we still see it here every damn day, the same innocent people cropped out of other photos, taken out of context, warped and manipulated to support some bs Alex Jones theory.

The thing is, these are innocent people. Those pics of security staff some here insist on sharing over and over again are two innocent people. I'm surprised they haven't already started suing sites for all the bs conspiracy theorists branding them murderers, even though the guy actually arrested and currently on trial has made a damn confession!

This is slander, and they would be well within their rights to start taking legal action against sites where they are being accused of crimes they have NOT committed.

Things are going to have to change soon unless people start taking personal responsibility for the accusations they make about people. Careers can be ruined, reputations destroyed, lives damaged forever, just because some ignorant fool on a site wants to believe that someone entirely innocent was involved in a horrific crime.

It should be as simple as this - if you want to accuse someone of a crime and identify that individual, take it to the police, don't be posting it on a website. If you do, you should expect to face the consequences of attempting to destroy their lives for your fantasy.

We did it Reddit!

Yeah, I remember that mess - it happened all over the internet in forums of public discussion. Perhaps not everywhere, but at least one other big forum I participated in. People got very focused on guessing WHO the bombers were.

I participated to some extent, but my focus was different. I tried to focus on WHERE the bombs were and WHAT we knew from photos rather than speculating on WHO.

People would point to pictures and say that some person in the recording MUST have done it... when it was possible that they were timed devices (as it turned out). It was a modern-day witch hunt.

originally posted by: Kali74
I think citizens journalism definitely has its place in today's society especially considering that most major media is corporate owned and the narratives controlled but people need to be responsible if they choose to engage in such.

But it looks like the vast majority of "citizen journalists" aren't going to be responsible. Anyone with a computer has access to mainstream media video and can manipulate it and repost it however they want in combination with any images or personal information they can find anywhere on the internet all from the comfort of their basement.

So you have this subculture of mentally compromised losers who can find attention and purpose in life by pushing these outlandish theories. Or people who are doing it for profit. And people who are getting sucked in because they have poor filtering skills when it comes to sound and images on the screen because they come from generations of conditioning that what is presented in that format represents reality.

Heaven help you if you're the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could even just be some poor schmuck with photos online that someone decides identifies you as a "crisis actor."

a reply to: Rocker2013


That is a righteous post my friend - well said.
It's honestly unbelievable some of the crap that gets posted here and elsewhere online, with no thought for innocent, real people.

originally posted by: stargatetravels
a reply to: Rocker2013
It's honestly unbelievable some of the crap that gets posted here and elsewhere online, with no thought for innocent, real people.

And, of course, the irony is that the people doing this would be the first ones to start shrieking paranoid, bloody murder about the violation of their rights if someone started posting their personal info all over the web.

originally posted by: stargatetravels
a reply to: Rocker2013


That is a righteous post my friend - well said.
It's honestly unbelievable some of the crap that gets posted here and elsewhere online, with no thought for innocent, real people.

Several countries are working on legislation to facilitate the removal of content accusing or defaming innocent people, and while I hate the idea of any form of censorship, it's only right that people be protected from being called criminals by random nutters around the Internet.

I see it as no different to the "revenge porn" sites, it's the same kind of attack and abuse of innocent people, for the enjoyment of idiots. We do have a real problem with an entire generation who seem to think that anything on the Internet is fair game, any image can be used for anything they want to use it for, regardless of the ramifications that might have for those in the image.

This is just not acceptable. People here, and elsewhere, sharing photos of people they don't know, claiming they're a murderer, or other criminal, are committing a crime by making that accusation. It's defamation and slander. There will come a time when people will have to start being held accountable for the accusations they make against entirely innocent strangers.

originally posted by: Rocker2013
while I hate the idea of any form of censorship, it's only right that people be protected from being called criminals by random nutters around the Internet.

And if you look at what's happening with Sandy Hook it can go far beyond simply calling someone a criminal.

What could happen is that this kind of crap might lead to new precedents regarding limitations of speech online.

Yeah that whole thing was one giant mess. Some on Reddit were even going as far as calling and harassing victims, call police on innocent people and doxxing a bunch of people that had nothing to do with the whole thing.

Well the moderator shouldn't be full of regrets(minus the innocent people being put into it and the harassment) because it does reveal the good of people trying to uncover the truth. Reddit is not what it was then. Doubt we would ever see this kind of involvement again on the site due to the heavy, rather biased(possible shill co opted), moderation.