Social media has taken off in a short time. News is shared with it, news is made with it, comments are made, short columns are published and they are even regularly used to catch criminals. Facebook and Twitter can be used to solve crimes, pass on tips and locate lost children.
Social media platforms are used by so many people that they are used to track down missing people and even perpetrators of crimes. A photo or YouTube video on social media can reach a large audience in no time and fulfill a function.
The commonly used social media are:
- Twitter;
- Facebook;
- YouTube.
Head kicks
A lot of commotion was caused in early 2013 by a video about a crime. The video shows an assault by a group of young people. The images were first broadcast by Omroep Brabant. A security camera had captured the rocky area and the abuse was clearly visible. The images quickly spread across the world wide web via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Within a few days the video had been viewed 500,000 times. According to Geenstijl.nl, the group introduces the word of 2013: head kicks.
Outrage
A wave of outrage swept through the Netherlands and Belgium. Two of the members of the abusive group were so shocked that they went to the police to report themselves.
Images
The video shows images of a group of eight boys walking through Eindhoven in the early morning of January 4, 2013. Some of the group kick bicycles and also a passer-by. The victim is pushed over and kicked while lying on the ground. The victim is a 22-year-old man from Oirschot. Miraculously, he escapes with nothing more than bruises, a concussion and a head wound. It appears that he suffered no lasting physical injuries as a result of the crime.
Busy
The confrontation with the images and the social pressure following publication on social media encouraged two of the perpetrators to report to the police. When they saw the images, they were shocked and confessed their involvement to their parents. The parents then drove the boys aged fifteen and seventeen to the police station. The social media-using public then increases the pressure on the other boys to also report. Photos of the group of friends circulate on all stages and spread like an inkblot across the country. The names of the boys in the photo are collected and pasted onto the photo. In this way they are seen as abusers by face and name to the whole world. Within a week, all eight reported to the police.
#SM @OVV
In 2011, TNO wrote a booklet about the blessing or curse of social media in maintaining security in the country: Vision on Social Media in Public Order and Safety (#SM @OVV). The use of social media has grown so much in the first and second decades of the twenty-first century that the police and the judiciary must take this into account. Witnesses to accidents and robberies are asked to take a photo and send it to the police: Catch the robber. Grab your cell phone. Thanks to the use of Burgernet, where participants receive a text message when, for example, a child has been lost, many toddlers have already been safely returned to their parents. With NL Alert, participants receive a text message in the event of an emergency in the area. These are examples of positive use of social media. At the Facebook party in Haren in September 2012, an appeal on Facebook mobilized thousands of people. What should have been a party with friends became a battlefield. The Netherlands was explicitly introduced to the downside of social media.
News
Twitter and Facebook also ensure that news about disasters is shared immediately with anyone who wants to read it. It requires a different way of crisis communication from police spokespersons and authorities. The communication processes must be faster and more flexible. Citizens, government and security organizations almost simultaneously have access to information about a disaster that was previously provided to citizens in doses.
The safety organizations are moving along with the developments. Social media now play a role in enforcement, investigation and crisis management.
Live report
At the time of the trial against the murderer of Marianne Vaatstra, Twitter was the medium where live reports of the trial could be read. Several reporters were in the courtroom specifically as Twitter reporters. The social medium gave the term ‘live report’ a new meaning.
Agent on Twitter
The police actively use Twitter to make announcements, post warnings and to reunite the stray dog with its owner. It is a good example of how Twitter can be used positively.
Utilize
Police focus on interaction:
- Make better use of citizen involvement and information on social media;
- deploy people and machines to their strengths, make automated support smarter and faster;
- emancipation of citizens and government;
- shared information position in the security chain.
Privacy
In general, more value is attached to the importance of detecting perpetrators than to the protection of privacy. The photos on the internet of the boys who were abused are an example of this.
In the frankwatching.com blog we read in this context: “It is important that a constant balance is maintained between the violation of privacy, the risk of conviction in advance and national security.”
Witch hunt
Finally, back to the example of the boys from Eindhoven: the publication of the images and the collection of the names led to a witch hunt. The incident sparked a flood of commentary, and the news spread at breakneck speed.
The names that were pasted on the photos of the kickers also included the name of a boy who had nothing to do with the case. He happened to have the same name and fit into the kickers’ age group. He received threats because people saw his name on social media in connection with the head kick case.
On social media, everyone can participate in the discussion, unhindered by factual knowledge and without having to be heard or heard. Anyone who raises something on Facebook will receive a tail of responses under their post and then responses to the comments, with no guarantee of care or correction.
Ruben made a suitable cartoon about it: Social media as the modern pillory.
read more
- Social Media – Negative sides of Facebook and platforms