As if life isn't difficult enough for these two families ... it seems there are those with nothing better to do than try to drive a wedge between them for their own personal motives be it malice or sheer enjoyment.
The forced withdrawal from twitter doesn't help anyone ... particularly children whose kidnapping by a parent or relative can be flagged up in time to prevent something more serious happening.
"What about all the other missing children?" ... maybe that is one lifeline less for them.
To re-enforce the point you have just made, further demonstrating the damage the trolls have done resulting in the closure of one outlet synonymous with missing children, namely Madeleine McCann :-
http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/when-missing-kids-go-viral-why-everyones-sharing-lost-children-now/story-fnjwnhzf-1227558043736THE idea of a “viral” missing child sounds wrong, like people rubbernecking from their cars for a better view of an accident.
While it’s uncomfortable evidence of our base instincts, this fascination with real-life horror stories could be key to solving some of the world’s most perplexing disappearances.
Despite serious concerns over false leads and trolling, these rapidly expanding networks have already been responsible for finding children who might otherwise have been lost forever.
The numbers are persuasive. Missing toddler William Tyrrell’s Facebook page has more than 57,000 likes, with users as far afield as the US and the Netherlands sharing his story.
A typical appeal on the Australian Missing and Endangered Children Facebook page about Clive Hart, a 12-year-old who went missing in Perth two weeks ago, has had more than 800 shares across the country. Commenters on the page often add their postcode to illustrate how far the post has been shared. “Shared Gladstone 4680”, comments a Queensland woman on Clive’s post. “Shared 2680”, adds a user from Griffith, NSW.
It’s a global phenomenon. Missing Children Argentina has almost 150,000 likes. A post about Sofia Herrera, a child who vanished seven years ago, reads: “It takes more inquisitive glances, more restless attitudes, more pro-activeness, more sensitivity, more interest, more activity in the search. Sofia needs us.” It has almost 7000 shares.
“Thanks for sharing your image,” reads another post. “Thanks for lending us your eyes.”
Missing Children South Africa has almost 60,000 likes, while America’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has 291,631 likes, with a post about missing Ohio two-year-old Rainn Peterson gaining almost 19,000 shares (she has since been found).
It’s hard to quantify how many of these posts have led to a child being located, since witnesses are encouraged to directly contact the police, rather than speculate online. But there are definite examples.
In January, Carl Koppelman solved the cold case of 16-year-old Tammy Jo Alexander, who went missing in the 1970s, when a childhood friend shared a photo. He recognised Tammy Jo from a photo on the WebSleuths site of an unidentified US teenager found shot to death in a cornfield in 1979. Could a similar moment help discover the identity of South Australia’s suitcase girl?
Last June, a cashier at a truck stop in Louisiana was approached by a middle-aged man and a teenager she recognised from an online video, local TV station 10 News reported. Fawn Dominque sent the pair to another cashier while she checked the footage, and then rang the police. She had found Ashley Lyon from Florida and her abductor, 41-year-old Steven Myers.
Dominque had recognised them from one of the more controversial pages about missing kids — that of former prosecutor Nancy Grace, a TV personality on CNN’s “must-see, must-share” channel HLN.
Grace has almost two million likes, and one recent post about an abandoned baby gained 50,000 shares.
The larger-than-life, divisive star operates at the intersection between real-life crime and entertainment. Her team use Crowdtangle, a tool that helps companies find and track content that’s performing strongly across the social web, Buzzfeed reported this week. Producers filter for grisly crime, helping them identify the missing children, abductions, rapes and murders that are triggering the highest sharing rates among Facebook users.
It’s disconcerting that cases might get extra attention depending on how attractive a child is or how relatable the crime, but it’s something that’s been happening in the media for decades.
The parents of missing three-year-old Madeleine McCann endured years of unproven allegations against them, which led to an inquiry into press standards in the UK. With social media stoking the fire, some campaigns to track down a missing child can get out of hand, and unsubstantiated rumours built up into stories with the power to ruin lives.
Amateur online detectives have caused all sorts of distress to victims’ families and friends and innocent suspects in murder cases.
Popular podcast Serial hit the headlines when it provoked a frenzy of speculation about a 1999 high school murder, upsetting and angering the victim’s family.
Back in 1996, the case of murdered six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey led to what her parents John and Patsy called “the first cyberspace lynching”, a new form of witch-hunting and vigil[ censored word]m that tore into almost everyone connected to the case, and contributed to the shutdown of the Justice Watch website.
A posting of William Tyrrell’s story to the “Unresolved Mysteries” section of social network Reddit, which has 114,446 readers, recently attracted 200-plus comments, including uncorroborated accusations against family members and government organisations. Another post about the case on Facebook reads: “I was up in applehill today and seen a boy they also called william that looked just like your some and when I saw them I had gotten a sick feeling about it” (sic).
But despite the upsetting effect of these comments, even the slim chance that a child could be found keeps families determined to use the connected world of social media. Relatives often run Facebook pages themselves, or post regular public appeals years after the police have had to move on. When Suzie Ratcliffe posted on Facebook in 2012 about her sister Joanne, who went missing at Adelaide Oval in 1973, a woman came forward with potential new clues.
It’s a world of pain, shattered hopes and potential exploitation of tragedy for personal and commercial gain. Nevertheless, most parents with a lost child would pray for their baby to go viral.
