l*y
发帖数: 21010 | 1 reddit网友在网上当侦探力图找出爆炸案元凶，结果却造成数名无辜人员严重中枪，fa
cebook页面被暴民谩骂
http://www.reddit.com/r/misc/comments/1cuj7p/how_close_were_we_
e_boston_bombers/c9k6nqy
EDIT: The former creator and moderator of /r/findbostonbombers has informed
me that he's received threats from people angry about Sunil. This is just as
disgusting as what happened on /r/findbostonbombers and is completely unacc
eptable. As such I have removed all references to his username.
I followed the sub from its beginning, and began to actively participate to
ask that people stop the witch hunt after the FBI released the photographs o
f the suspects.
The subreddit did not have a single photo which showed the Tsarneav brothers
until the release of their images by the FBI. Users were focused on "analyz
ing" FLICKR images of people standing near the finish line no later than nin
ety minutes before the bombs exploded.
In doing so, they accused multiple people of being the bomber solely because
they were wearing a backpack, or even worse wearing a backpack while having
dark skin. The most famous of these was the 17 year old who was featured on
the cover of the New York Post. This subreddit determined him and the man n
ext to him to be suspects hours before their photos appeared on the Post's f
ront page. The creator posted his photos to numerous subreddits and said tha
t he was suspicious. He even drew diagrams of the pressure cooker inside the
backpack of the boy's friend standing next to them.
The creator set the initial agenda of the subreddit as finding anyone with a
backpack and marking them in photographs as potential suspects regardless o
f any actual evidence of incriminating or even suspicious behavior. Many of
these people became the subjects of viral accusations across facebook, twitt
er, and IRC. The response of the creator was to blame the media and not hims
elf.
After the photos of the suspects were released by the FBI, one person posted
a photo that he took of Tamerlan from behind as he walked past the site of
the second bomb and towards the finish line.
Someone else posted a photo of both bombers fleeing that was found on anothe
r forum. In both cases, those people forwarded their photos to the FBI befor
e they posted them to Reddit. It was not /r/findbostonbombers that led to th
at information being discovered, it was the FBI's plea to the public that di
d so.
The subreddit spent a great deal of time finding out what kind of hats the b
rothers wore, and triumphantly proclaimed a victory when they figured it out
as if the FBI hadn't already. People then wanted to try and find out about
their shoes.
It was at this point, about two and a half to three hours after the FBI rele
ased the photos that the first accusations that Sunil Tripathi was "Suspect
#2" began to surface. These were initially upvoted and discussed for about h
alf an hour before being locked. People then began posting on the family's f
acebook page that he was behind the bombings. From that point on, every few
minutes a new thread would emerge about Sunil.
Around this same time the first police scanner threads started to pop up. At
first it was nothing of interest, and then the 7/11 robbery occurred and th
en the shooting at MIT at which point the subreddit went into overdrive and
began posting anything and everything off of the scanner and twitter as fast
as possible.
More and more Sunil threads began to stick, and by the time his name was all
egedly heard on the scanner it became almost impossible to not notice the ac
cusations about him.
When it had been "confirmed" according to the scanner and other sources that
Sunil Tripathi was a suspect, the subreddit then went into a whirlwind of s
elf congratulation and smug condemnations of anyone that said anything remot
ely critical.
When it became apparent that it was not him sometime afterwards, these same
people deleted their threads and tried to shift the blame elsewhere.
It was not until the official announcement of the names of the suspects, and
the death of Tamerlane Tsarneav that the moderators officially asked that s
peculation about Sunil Tripathi be ceased. By this point he had been libeled
on the subreddit and slandered to his family on facebook for hours.
People then continued to discuss details from the scanner, and there were at
tempts to map the events on the scanner way after the point in which the Bos
ton PD asked that such actions not be taken for officer safety.
At its core, the subreddit was nothing more than a place for wild speculatio
n and angry defenses of that wild speculation, except for the brief moment i
n which the sub erupted in smug self satisfaction that they had "been right"
about a man they called a terrorist to his mother's face and left a record
of their libel of online.
Edit: Thank you to u/SquarePenguinous and the other kind anonymous person wh
o gifted me Reddit Gold. |
|
