Thread: 5 viral stories about Boston attacks that aren't true

5 viral stories about Boston attacks that aren't true

By Doug Gross, CNN updated 2:30 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2013 | Filed under: Social Media

This tweet on a hastily created account wrongly claimed that two 8-year-olds were killed in the Boston bombings.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• On social media, untrue stories about the Boston terror attacks have gone viral quickly
• One photo falsely purported to show a man who had planned to propose to his girlfriend
• People believed cell phone service was shut down by authorities, but it wasn't
• Tragedy shows "best and worst" of Twitter, media professional says

Editor's note: Doug Gross covers consumer technology and the Web for CNN.com. Follow him on Twitter, and add him to your Circles on Google+.
(CNN) -- In the aftermath of dramatic events like Monday's bombing attack at the Boston Marathon, it's a truth of our times that millions of people will get early bits of news via social media.
To be sure, sites like Twitter and Facebook were used extensively by police, relief groups and governments to share important information about the bombings. But there's also a more unfortunate side to how the Web responds to sudden bad news.
Sometimes accidentally and sometimes maliciously, false information gets loose. And in the rapid-fire digital echo chamber, it doesn't take long to spread.
"On days like this, Twitter shows its best & worst: loads of info at huge speed, but often false & sometimes deliberately so," said Mark Blank-Settle, of the BBC College of Journalism, in a post on the site.
As always, news discovered online (or anywhere else, really) should be double-checked before it's passed along -- especially in times of tragedy.
Here are some of the most widely shared untrue news items we've found on social media in the past 24 hours.
Man planned to propose, girlfriend killed
Among the many gripping images to emerge from the bombing's aftermath was one of a man in a red shirt, kneeling on the ground cradling a woman in his arms. It went viral -- with a heartbreaking, but fake, story attached.

This Boston Globe photo from the attack's aftermath went viral, but with a fake story attached to it.


"The man in the red shirt planned to propose to his girlfriend as he crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon, but she passed away" it reads. "Most of us will never experience this amount of emotional pain."
The image is, in fact, real. It comes from the Boston Globe and was shared through Getty Images. But the agency's caption merely describes the scene as a man comforting an injured woman at the finish line.
That didn't stop it from making the rounds in a big way. A somewhat misleading Facebook account pretending to represent actor Will Ferrell (it calls itself a "parody" but has 385,000 likes) shared the post. By Tuesday morning, the picture had more than 448,000 "likes" and had been shared over 92,000 times.
Young girl died at finish line
Another heart-wrenching image of a supposed victim went viral. In this one, a young girl running in a road race is pictured, with text saying she died in one of the blasts. As an added cruel twist, the post says she was "running for the Sandy Hook victims."
But a quick look at the photo shows that her runner's bib is from the Joe Cassella 5K in Great Falls, Virginia. Also, the Boston Marathon does not allow runners that young.
On Google+, one of the users who shared the image followed it with "poor little girl..got killed in boston..):" By Tuesday, it had more than 500 comments and had become a "What's Hot" post on the site -- appearing in the feeds of all users who haven't turned off that feature.
On Tuesday, organizers of that race shot down the tale on their Facebook account.
"We would like to clarify that the picture circulating on the web and Twitter of a little girl wearing a Joe Cassella 5K bib claiming to have been killed at the Boston marathon is being used fraudulently," read the page for the Joe Cassella Foundation. The group raises funds for the families of children who are ill in the Washington area.
Race organizers will donate for retweets
A Twitter account sprouted up under the handle @_BostonMarathon. Posing as the organizers of the race, whoever is behind the account tweeted: "For every retweet we receive we will donate $1 to the #BostonMarathon victims #PrayForBoston."
By Monday evening, the post had been retweeted more than 50,000 times.
It was, of course, fake. And to its credit, Twitter disabled the account soon afterward.
It wasn't the only Twitter phony. Another widely talked-about account, @Hope4Boston, shared both the image of the 8-year-old girl who supposedly died and a photo of a young boy, running in a race, who was another supposed victim.
Eight-year-old Martin Richard was one of three confirmed fatalities as of Tuesday morning. But he was watching the race, waiting for his father to finish -- not running in it.
The "Hope for Boston" account was created on March 24, according to the Web tool When Did You Join Twitter? But account holders are able to change their handles and names on the site.
Authorities shut down cell phone service
Reports flew around social media, mainly Twitter, on Monday that police in Boston had shut down cellular networks to prevent an attacker from using a cell phone to detonate another explosive. At least one media report quoted an unnamed source with information to that effect, before later recanting.
In truth, Boston's wireless network was simply overwhelmed with the volume of calls and other communications in the aftermath of the attack. Service was slow and spotty, but never shut down. Verizon and other mobile carriers confirmed they'd never been contacted by officials asking them to shut off service.
Soon after the bombings, mobile carriers were beefing up their networks in the Boston area. AT&T made its Wi-Fi system publicly available for free to help take the load off traditional phone lines.
Conspiracy theories
We almost hate to even address this stuff. We'll start with a bottom line: Anyone saying they know what happened at this point is making it up.
But that didn't stop far-fetched imaginings, often based in political ideology, from flying almost immediately after the attack.
One syndicated talk show host (who won't be named and whose content won't be linked here) tweeted that the attacks "stink to high heaven" of a so-called "false flag," or staged attack. "False flag" is an old naval term that's come to be used for a military action that's not what it appears to be.
At least one Web user was ready for this. He registered a website -- bostonmarathonconspiracy.com -- on Monday. Clicking the link reveals a white page with black text reading:
"I bought this domain to keep some conspiracy theory kook from owning it. Please keep the victims of this event and their families in your thoughts. Thank you."
　
　
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/tech/social-media/social-media-boston-fakes/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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Conspiracy theories
We almost hate to even address this stuff. We'll start with a bottom line: Anyone saying they know what happened at this point is making it up.

Who's behind the Boston Marathon bombings? 4 theories

By Peter Weber | The Week – Tue, Apr 16, 2013





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More than half a day after the explosions in Boston, police still have few answers. That hasn't quieted the speculation.
Law enforcement officials don't have any official suspects in Monday's twin bombings at the finish line of the Boston marathon. And President Obama specifically urged people not to speculate on who's behind the attack, which killed at least three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounded more than 100 others, including several amputations.
"We still don't know who did this or why," Obama said Monday night. "People should not jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But make no mistake. We will get to the bottom of this. We will find out who did this. We will find out why they did this. Any individual or responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."
SEE MORE: Where to find helpful information about the Boston Marathon explosions
Of course, plenty of people are speeding by the president's advice and jumping to conclusions, or at least jumping to theories. "We all wonder first who did this," says Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. And, Tomasky says, a little careful speculation isn't such a bad thing. Here are four groups that are the focus of early (and — let us be clear — sometimes baseless) finger-pointing in the Boston attack:
1. Islamist jihadists
This theory was inevitable in the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and it gained some initial credence from a New York Post report that a 20-year-old Saudi national had been picked up as a "person of interest." Police quickly threw cold water on that report, but then Boston TV station WABC reported that police are "searching for a darker skinned or black male with a black backpack and black sweatshirt, possibly foreign national from the accent of the individual."
SEE MORE: Boston is more than a marathon. It embodies the American spirit.
Another anonymous law enforcement official "notes that the manner of the attack suggests it may have been Al Qaeda inspired — if not Al Qaeda directed," says Christopher Dickey at The Daily Beast. That's because the construction of the bombs — gunpowder with ball-bearings and other shrapnel to maximize the damage — is similar to a bomb recipe shared by Al Qaeda "on its internet manuals for terrorist attacks."
Of course, not everyone is convinced. "Horrific as this obviously was, it doesn't seem big enough" for an attack by Arab terrorists, says The Daily Beast's Tomasky. "Everything we know about their m.o. — the 1993 WTC bombing, the 2000 LAX plot, and 9-11 — suggests that they aim bigger."
SEE MORE: The Boston Marathon explosions: 7 heartwrenching images
2. Right-wing militia types
This theory, too, was inevitable. And most proponents point to the date — Patriots' Day — as a clue. Residents of Massachusetts and Maine celebrate Patriots' Day by taking the day off of work and re-enacting the first battles of the American Revolution, says Sommer Mathis at The Atlantic Cities. "But in recent years, Second Amendment activists and anti-government modern-day militia members have tried to co-opt the holiday, which also roughly marks the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing."
It's also "wise in these cases to remember that the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 were carried out by Americans who espoused extreme right-wing causes," says The Daily Beast's Dickey.
SEE MORE: What the Boston Marathon means to a Bostonian
There's also the fact that the Boston Marathon fell on tax day this year, and the last mile of the race "was dedicated to Newtown victims," says Tomasky.
"But man you would have to be a really 100 percent out-there sicko to think that this was how you wanted to make a political statement about gun rights. I think there are dangerous extremists among that group, but I don't think even they would do or approve of doing something like this." [Daily Beast]

3. The government
"False flag" attack proponents wasted no time blaming the government for staging the Boston explosions to achieve their own ends, says Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon. First out of the gate was Alex Jones, who tweeted: "Our hearts go out to those that are hurt or killed #Boston marathon – but this thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag."SEE MORE: The Boston bombing: fact and fiction
Then "Dan Bidondi, a 'reporter/analyist' (sic) for Alex Jones's InfoWars, managed to ask Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick the very first question in a nationally televised press conference," notes Slate's David Weigel:
Why were the loud speakers telling people in the audience to be calm moments before the bombs went off? Is this another false flag staged attack to take our civil liberties and promote homeland security while sticking their hands down our pants on the streets? [Via Slate]
"Patrick, looking on with a mixture of rage and pity, said 'no,' surely aware that he couldn't halt this guy's incipient Internet fame," says Weigel. But the inevitable Boston marathon "truthers" will have a hard time with this conspiracy theory. There were too many cameras and witnesses to "concoct a really compelling conspiracy theory," and the real-time fact-checking on Twitter has decimated the bad information that conspiracies need to thrive. For example, those "loud speakers" urging calm never happened.SEE MORE: Will Marco Rubio save immigration reform — or kill it?
4. A criminally insane lone wolf
There's also the possibility that this attack was perpetrated by some "local nutcase," says Tomasky at The Daily Beast. "I guess I am right now leaning in that least conspiratorial direction." Unfortunately, in our "open and free society," people can cause massive destruction with a few well-placed bombs. There's a decent chance the Boston marathon attackers were "motivated by simple revenge of some kind, or by nothing but the disease in someone's brain."
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Other stories from this section:

• What's a 'crude' bomb, anyway?
• The Boston bombing: fact and fiction 　
  　
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Watchdogs warn of fake Boston bomb charities

By Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times
Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Americans are rushing to donate to victims of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, but watchdog groups say watch out: The dozens of websites that just registered domains related to the attack may be fake charity sites seeking to profit from the tragedy.
CNN reported that just hours after the attacks, these domains were registered: bostonmarthondonations.com, bostonmarathonvictimfund.com and bostonmarathonattack.com.
Nonprofit spokesmen say to be on guard: It’s too early to know if these sites are legitimate or fake, but charity fraud frequently comes within days of tragedies, CNN reported. And charities that rely on social media to collect donations — or steal credit card numbers — are particularly easy to stage.
One for the Boston bombing has already been outed. A fraudster set up a Twitter account, @_BostonMarathon, promising to donate $1 for every retweet, CNN reported. Twitter executives closed the account — but by then, it had already received 50,000 retweets. And Twitter warned: More Boston-related scams are “likely,” CNN reported.
“Social media, in particular, makes it very easy to reach a lot of people quickly, when emotions are running high and people feel the need to take action, any action, to help,” H. Art Taylor, president and chief executive officer of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance said, in CNN.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz2QlyeCqJs

'Family Guy' Boston Marathon bombing clip is an Internet hoax

by John Mitchell

A clip purporting to be from a March 17 episode of Fox’s animated comedy Family Guy was edited to suggest the show depicted the bombing of the Boston Marathon, representatives for the show have confirmed to EW.

“The edited Family Guy clip currently circulating is abhorrent. The event was a crime and a tragedy, and my thoughts are with the victims,” show creator Seth Macfarlane tweeted today.

In the edited clip, the show’s lead character Peter Griffin appears to use a cell phone to detonate two explosions after being asked how he won the event. The video began to gain traction online today after a right-wing conspiracy website ran the clip, claiming the episode had predicted the attack.

(It’s worth noting that a reporter from this same site asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick during a press conference last night if the bombing was a “another false flag staged attack to take our civil liberties and promote homeland security while sticking their hands down our pants on the streets.”)

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The scenes appeared separately in the Family Guy episode, titled “Turban Cowboy,” and were not connected in the show’s plot line as the viral video suggests.

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