In the wake of the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, Reddit users decided to exercise some vigilante justice in the form of a subreddit.
But the ‘findnavyyardshooters’ page was taken down by site managers within hours of its creation.
Erik Martin from Reddit told the Washington Post: "We banned it because it violated site rules by encouraging the posting of personal information. The quote from the side bar that subreddit that was banned said ‘no personal information about leads unless you are really sure.’ We do not allow the posting of personal information under any circumstances."
The page was prompted after police said there may be another suspect at large, and they "have reason to believe" this individual was involved in shootings.
This is not the first time Reddit users have banded together in an attempt to track down a killer. A manhunt for the person responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in April began on Reddit.
It unfortunately turned into a witch hunt, which lead innocent Sunil Tripathi, a 22 year-old Brown University student, to be blamed for the terrorist attack. Tripath had gone missing the previous month, but his body was later discovered near Providence, Rhode Island.
"We hoped that the crowdsourced search for new information would not spark exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong," said Reddit general manager Erik Martin at the time. "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."
By quickly abolishing the ‘findnavyyardshooters’, Reddit avoided any further controversy. Not only was it a troll subreddit, but the page also provided personal information and therefore violated site rules.
But Reddit has become a surprisingly efficient and effective source of real-time news information and updates. For example, after the shooting at a cinema in Aurora Colorado, the site hosted a continuously updated board of victim statuses and their current hospital sites, making it the quickest way to get news on any potential victims, which no doubt helped many people who were trying to find out about their loved ones involved in the shooting.
Do you think Reddit is a suitable way to share sensitive information on national tragedies? Should the vigilante pages be allowed, or will it lead to false blame?
