NEW YORK (Reuters): Zooming in on surveillance footage of a gun that could have had a silencer fitted to it. Scouring the web to identify the brand of a backpack. Triangulating data of a rental bike to uncover an escape route.
Wednesday’s shocking murder in Manhattan of UnitedHealthcare (UNH.N) CEO Brian Thompson – what police called a targeted killing – brought out a bevy of sleuths and true-crime fans across social media looking for clues about the killer’s motivation and how he managed to flee from the scene and seemingly disappear into the city of more than 8 million people.
We’re all going to have to work towards a renewed commitment to pluralist principles.
By Thursday, police were examining evidence ranging from surveillance video to items discarded nearby that could contain DNA to find the killer. Authorities also asked for the public’s help, releasing a photo with a clear view of his face.
Meanwhile, platforms including Bluesky, Reddit and X sprouted hundreds of posts from amateur gumshoes poring over video and photos. “Dude had a suppressor, which is an extremely difficult thing to acquire, especially in a state like New York,” wrote one Reddit user.
Such forums are rife with so-called internet detectives who pick through publicly available reports to uncover information in the aftermath of major crimes. Sometimes, they succeed: Online sleuths helped investigators identify numerous rioters who took part in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, following Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in 2020.
But such “crowd-sourced investigations” also can go awry. Following the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Reddit users spread theories that pointed at the wrong people, which were later amplified by publications including the New York Post. The FBI released pictures of their leading suspects to quell the speculation.
Social media helps people connect around a shared subject, but it also blurs the line between news and speculation, said Tahneer Oksman, a professor in Marymount Manhattan College’s communications department in New York.
“So many people are no longer making the important distinctions between getting vetted information and chatting/speculating about such vetted information,” she said.
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