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Moroccan Teenager Salah Barhoun Wrongly IDed by Social Media as Boston Marathon Bomber

Even as we applaud the use of crowdsourcing to find terrorists such as those who bombed the Boston Marathon, we must caution over the sharing of uncorroborated accusations and “news” via social media. CNN famously got a lot wrong both during and following the initial Boston Marathon bombing crisis, including sending out updates that erroneously stated that the police already had a suspect in custody. And if a major news outlet is fallible and can mislead the public, just imagine how badly untrained but eager-to-help social media users can can screw up. And screw up they did, when spreading the picture of Moroccan teenager Salah Barhoun around as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing.