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After some reflection I want to share my thoughts about the media activity during the recent crisis in Boston. We all need to look at what happened and make sure that in the future we do everything we can to help and not hinder crisis situations.
During the tragedy and the aftermath, people found many different avenues to help. The vast majority of these activities were positive. They provided a way for people to stay informed, as well as a place to just discuss, cope, and try to make sense of what happened. Primarily, we served as a great clearinghouse for information. Continual ongoing updates made media of the best sources for staying up-to-date about the recent events. On top of that, media did everything from donating to relief funds, having pizzas delivered to area police and hospitals, to arranging for people with dogs to bring them to a park so people could escape a bit with some cute animal therapy, and even arranging housing and transportaion for out-of-towners who were stranded in Boston because of the bombing. We are all incredibly proud that the platform enabled this help.
However, though started with noble intentions, some of the activity on reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties. The reddit staff and the millions of people on reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened. They want to take this opportunity to apologize publicly for the pain they have had to endure. We hope that this painful event will be channeled into something positive and the increased awareness will lead to Sunil's quick and safe return home. I encourage everyone to join and show your support to the Tripathi family and their search.
A few years ago, the blogging site Reddit enacted a policy to not allow personal information on the site. This was because “let’s find out who this is” events frequently result in witch hunts, often incorrectly identifying innocent suspects and disrupting or ruining their lives. We hoped that the crowd-sourced search for new information would not spark exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong. The search for the bombers bore less resemblance to the types of vindictive Internet witch hunts our no-personal-information rule was originally written for, but the outcome was no different.
This crisis has reminded all of us of the fragility of people’s lives and the importance of our communities, online as well as offline. These communities and lives are now interconnected in an unprecedented way. Especially when the stakes are high we must strive to show good judgement and solidarity. One of the greatest strengths of decentralized, self-organizing groups is the ability to quickly incorporate feedback and adapt. Reddit was born in the Boston area (Medford, MA to be precise). After this week, which showed the best and worst of reddit's potential, we hope that Boston will also be where reddit learns to be sensitive of its own power. The Internet and the media could be a dangerous thing. While the global influence and speed of the internet allowed us to find and identify victims and terrorists in a quick and efficient manner, we were also bombarded with rumors and useless information that nearly made us go on a wild goose chase. We must realize that with great power comes great responsibility. I’m pretty sure the next time around, people will be able to use it in a proper manner. But who knows? So many people use the Internet these days that it is tough to distinguish good information from bad information. Even this journal can end up somewhere else in the Internet, and be used as information.
During the tragedy and the aftermath, people found many different avenues to help. The vast majority of these activities were positive. They provided a way for people to stay informed, as well as a place to just discuss, cope, and try to make sense of what happened. Primarily, we served as a great clearinghouse for information. Continual ongoing updates made media of the best sources for staying up-to-date about the recent events. On top of that, media did everything from donating to relief funds, having pizzas delivered to area police and hospitals, to arranging for people with dogs to bring them to a park so people could escape a bit with some cute animal therapy, and even arranging housing and transportaion for out-of-towners who were stranded in Boston because of the bombing. We are all incredibly proud that the platform enabled this help.
However, though started with noble intentions, some of the activity on reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties. The reddit staff and the millions of people on reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened. They want to take this opportunity to apologize publicly for the pain they have had to endure. We hope that this painful event will be channeled into something positive and the increased awareness will lead to Sunil's quick and safe return home. I encourage everyone to join and show your support to the Tripathi family and their search.
A few years ago, the blogging site Reddit enacted a policy to not allow personal information on the site. This was because “let’s find out who this is” events frequently result in witch hunts, often incorrectly identifying innocent suspects and disrupting or ruining their lives. We hoped that the crowd-sourced search for new information would not spark exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong. The search for the bombers bore less resemblance to the types of vindictive Internet witch hunts our no-personal-information rule was originally written for, but the outcome was no different.
This crisis has reminded all of us of the fragility of people’s lives and the importance of our communities, online as well as offline. These communities and lives are now interconnected in an unprecedented way. Especially when the stakes are high we must strive to show good judgement and solidarity. One of the greatest strengths of decentralized, self-organizing groups is the ability to quickly incorporate feedback and adapt. Reddit was born in the Boston area (Medford, MA to be precise). After this week, which showed the best and worst of reddit's potential, we hope that Boston will also be where reddit learns to be sensitive of its own power. The Internet and the media could be a dangerous thing. While the global influence and speed of the internet allowed us to find and identify victims and terrorists in a quick and efficient manner, we were also bombarded with rumors and useless information that nearly made us go on a wild goose chase. We must realize that with great power comes great responsibility. I’m pretty sure the next time around, people will be able to use it in a proper manner. But who knows? So many people use the Internet these days that it is tough to distinguish good information from bad information. Even this journal can end up somewhere else in the Internet, and be used as information.
