Boston bombing: Reddit learns how 'witch hunts can start'

Fueled by Twitter, online forums like Reddit and 4Chan, smartphones and relays of police scanners, thousands of people played armchair detective as police searched for men who turned out to be suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic ChechenReddit's involvement - whether good or bad - in the hunt for leads in the Boston bombings case does not appear to be the reason for ongoing site outagesOn Reddit, an increasingly influential social media site owned by magazine publisher Conde Nast, users posted pictures taken from the bomb scene and engaged in a large-scale, semi-organized effort to identify the bombers. At one point, users evenPresident Barack Obama has cautioned against repeating the identification and pursuit of suspects using social media and online forums such as Twitter and Reddit in future, after the furore over the Boston marathon bombings. Speaking after primeIf

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