Gizmodo reports that somebody (bodies?) decided to create a Facebook page to the effect that 23-year-old Triz Jefferies was the Kensington Strangler. Was this for lulz, or because somebody had a beef with Jefferies? Who knows. It didn’t really matter why. Facebook said so.
As a result of that Facebook post, “a group of people began sending text messages, posting flyers” and reposting the claim that Jefferies was linked to at least three murders and several sexual assaults. The man finally called the police and sought to clear his name after an angry mob gathered around his home:
Afraid of the crowds surrounding his house, the man submitted to a DNA test and was cleared in the case. He told police that he thought somebody was “trying to mess with me.”
Police are investigating who was behind the false information.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey reiterated the man’s innocence at a press conference today.
“He is not a suspect, he is not connected with this,” Ramsey said.
An angry mob gathered around his Philadelphia home, pitchforks and torches at the ready. This could have been inches away from a lynching.
Are you people completely nuts?
It’s one thing to accept Wikipedia as the font of all legitimate knowledge. That only makes you stupider and conclusively proves your laziness. But to be moved to the point of putting on a a coat, leaving your home and joining an angry mob in front of a house because Facebook said so?
“Everybody has to be very leery of photos of a wanted person on Facebook,” Lt. Ray Evers said. “Because of social networking and how big this fan page is growing … if somebody shared it with their friends, the multiplier effect … it’s pretty damning.”
Not damning, but damn dangerous. This reflects nothing about Jeffries, who had absolutely nothing to do with any of this. As for whoever put his name, address and image on Facebook, the question is whether they are pathologically stupid or deeply malevolent.
But the biggest question is what’s happened to the brains of otherwise sensible people who see something on Facebook and, in a rush of heroism, join a mob. Social media can be plenty of fun. Less so if you happen to be the person about to be lynched by a stupid mob.
I’ve been trying to moderate my views on social media of late, as I know how much the Slackoisie love it to provide them with a pale facsimile of friendship to compensate for their lack of any actual human interaction, and how lawyers with practices that can’t feed their families use it to lie about themselves to pretend they are worthy of retention. I’m not trying to make your lives even more pathetic than they already are.
But when people put stock in social media sufficiently to put some kid’s life at risk, whether it’s because Facebook said so, or some wiseacre on Twitter went on a rampage, then it’s time to spell it out for you.
People lie online. People make jokes online. Sometimes incredibly stupid jokes. Sometimes incredibly harmful lies. There is no one in the backroom fact checking.
Over time, I’ve come to see a lot of nonsense online. I’ve called some out. I’ve let most of it be, mostly because it’s too pervasive and I’ve grown tired of trying to stop the waves from rolling in. The best I can do is warn, though my warnings mean nothing to the social media sycophants who tout it as the new reality or the lawyers who have abandoned all dignity to feign sweetness and self-importance, to suck whatever pocket change they can find out of potential clients.
It’s bad enough that social media is the mechanism of choice for liars and scum. Do not act upon your impulses. Do not harm another human being because Facebook told you to.
The question has been asked whether the internet makes people stupider. And then a story like this happens. For God’s sake, grow up and get real. The day will soon come when the internet generation is in charge. When will you figure out that the place is rotten with lies and deception, and that nothing can be taken for granted?
For all your talk about how wonderful you are, how brilliant you are, how nice you are, you are the easiest generation to manipulate. You believe every bit of nonsense someone puts out in social media. How many people will get lynched before you wise up?
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Concerning the manipulability factor of an average person: I sincerely wish somebody wraps an IQ point or two and gives you this as a Christmas present.
The upside to this particular situation is that should the authorities be willing the originator of the defamatory, inflammatory statements can be ascertained.
Compare this to the not too distant past, when similar situations have occurred determining who started the rumor would have required multiple people telling the truth about from whom they had heard something. At least nowadays this man Jeffries could walk into court with some evidence more definite than hearsay.
Of course, that’s if he can find a lawyer to take the case. Within the past twelve months I came close – within one wrong twitch – of getting shot by the police because I hung up the telephone on the wrong person. [She called the police and stated that I was on my way to my place of employment to kill people.] It took a few hours to straighten that out.
“I’ve been trying to moderate my views on social media of late, as I know how much the Slackoisie love it to provide them with a pale facsimile of friendship to compensate for their lack of any actual human interaction, and how lawyers with practices that can’t fee their families use it to lie about themselves to pretend they are worthy of retention. I’m not trying to make your lives even more pathetic than they already are.”
Wow, you are being nicer.
I try.