There are many things that people need to apologize for in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, but Reddit apologizing for users failing to follow site rules is nowhere near the top of the list. Yet, that's what we got on Monday from Reddit's general manager Erik Martin in an official Reddit blogpost:
"However, though started with noble intentions, some of the activity on Reddit fueled online witchhunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties. The Reddit staff and the millions of people on Reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened."
Martin's sentiments are sincere and well-intentioned. But what exactly is Reddit apologizing for again?
The immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing saw people scrambling to help, whether they were healthcare and law enforcement professionals trained to do just that or novice internet detectives with hours of mental fuel to burn.
Much ado has been made of web citizens turning the Boston bombing investigation into a crowdsourced one on the r/FindBostonBombers subreddit. The photos of potential suspects wearing backpacks circled in red (originally from image-sharing website 4chan) were circulated far and wide by media outlets complaining about the dangers of this type of behavior.
It is true that Reddit polices itself and prohibits users from posting personal information or engaging in witch-hunts, but personal information of the falsely accused was screenshot before it was deleted and shared outside of Reddit's confines – something Reddit itself complained about. The New York Post's "Bag Men" cover story – featuring a photo of two falsely implicated suspects apparently taken from Reddit and not from the FBI – certainly didn't help matters.
The subreddit's unofficial, frenzied investigation was so interesting to the media, it became a story in itself. Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon scolded the media for its fascination with the Reddit online community's activity:
"No mainstream journalism outlet should allow its coverage of a major story to be hijacked by backchannel noise."
No media outlet seemed chastened, though. That is hardly surprising of Glenn Beck or Alex Jones, but even the New York Post defended its erroneous cover, prompting pranksters to apologize for them.
In the end, the FBI did its job and tracked down the two culprits without help from the crowdsourced investigation, while everyone fingered by Reddit users turned out to have been innocent. But that doesn't mean social media have no contribution to make. And Martin's apology for the mistakes of people he can't control seems a little odd when you consider the glaring lack of an apology from official media outlets.
Moderators on Reddit are not paid (nor are they trained), yet here they were apologizing personally to the wrongfully accused for other people's errors. Twitter staff could have apologized for the fake accounts created in the name of the suspect, but they didn't, either. No one bothered to apologize for anything, except for Reddit.
In a phone interview about the apology post, Martin said he wrote it because he "genuinely felt bad about what happened", even though he himself had nothing to do with it. The site has too many users, and moderators can't be everywhere. Protecting the site's public image from users who violate the rules is an almost impossible task.
As yet, there is no word on whether or not Martin will publicly apologize for the behavior of all the anonymous people angry over what happened to Sunil Tripathi who are currently sending the creator of r/findbostonbombers death threats – which is another violation of community rules.
