> Salah Barhoun was the guy [who] Redditors thought was the bomber
Citation needed. I saw no such declaration on reddit -- just that he seemed to be one of the dozens of somewhat interesting people worth looking at a little more closely.
It was the mass media that took this and turned it into "OMG REDDIT SAYS THEY FOUND THE BOMBER!"
Comments like this one [1] in this thread [2] didn't just appear out of nowhere. There was plenty of wild speculation (the worst of which has since been edited or deleted) in that thread in the hours following the event.
This widely circulated spreadsheet [3] contains a "suspect summary", not a list of "somewhat interesting people".
I've been closely watching this subreddit from the beginning, and have not seen anything of non-negligible prominence (including the comments you link to) accusing anyone of anything other than being worthy of a closer look.
The spreadsheet has 10+ people on it. You'd have to be willfully misinterpreting it to an absurd degree to conclude that reddit thought they all were simultaneously guilty.
>I've been closely watching this subreddit from the beginning, and have not seen anything of non-negligible prominence (including the comments you link to) accusing anyone of anything other than being worthy of a closer look.
Either you got there late or weren't paying attention. There are no shortage of people in this thread and the one I linked who witnessed that thread getting out of hand.
>The spreadsheet has 10+ people on it. You'd have to be willfully misinterpreting it to an absurd degree to conclude that reddit thought they all were simultaneously guilty.
I have no idea what kind of point you're trying to make here.
There's a lot of truth to 'untog's comment up above that no matter the nuance and diligence being practiced, Reddit is still an open and public forum and no amount of nuance is worth anything when stuff leaks out of Reddit.
> it was his interpretation from Reddit comments that Salah was one possible suspect
It's a huuuuuuge backpedal to go all the way from "reddit thought this guy was the bomber" to "one person on HN saw a reddit comment and it made him think that the guy was one possible suspect".
> no amount of nuance is worth anything when stuff leaks out of Reddit
Sure, but then the blame needs to be placed at the feet of the person who misrepresents the reddit post -- not on reddit itself.
Speaking of which, misrepresenting reddit is exactly what your comment at the top of this thread is doing. You should edit it.
Salah was wearing a bright tracksuit that stuck out, and I think he's got a pretty memorable face -- I would bet a good amount that when a day or two passes by, what people will remember would be that he was one of the suspects. The association in their minds has already been made. And, there's a non-zero chance at that point that someone will misread the post, or recall it inaccurately, there's a chance that someone might attack him in an attempt to catch him or something. Public, vigilante justice is bad, full stop.
Perhaps reddit needs a NSFW-like roadblock for special cases like this: Before you can enter the subreddit, you need to acknowledge that everyone is presumed innocent, that reposting things elsewhere can severely harm innocent people, that vigilante justice is bad, etc. Click each checkbox, hit submit, and only then do you get to start reading and participating.
You're absolutely right about vigilante justice, but there's a big difference between that (i.e., playing judge, jury, and executioner) and public evidence-review assistance (i.e., playing forensic investigator).
Citation needed. I saw no such declaration on reddit -- just that he seemed to be one of the dozens of somewhat interesting people worth looking at a little more closely.
It was the mass media that took this and turned it into "OMG REDDIT SAYS THEY FOUND THE BOMBER!"