Opinion | FrankFigliuzzi1: The concerted public effort to help the investigation reflects a recognition of the threat to democracy posed by those who breached the Capitol.
But deputizing the public for digital detective work isn't without its problems. Things can go wrong when even well-meaning people skip the part where they're supposed to report their findings to law enforcement. Misidentifications can lead to wrongful accusations, and exposure of personal information could result in vigilantism and violence — the very thing that sedition hunters are trying to thwart.
I reached out to Chris Sampson, chief of research for TAPSTRI, The Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategies, Tactics and Radical Ideology, to get his thoughts about the work these digital detectives are performing: The need for crowdsourced examination of available media from the Capitol insurrectionists is abundantly clear. Online sleuths are certainly contributing positively to the effort. However, there is no room for error in accusing people of a crime. The consequences to innocent people from misidentification are too steep to risk mistakes. It is still best to take available information and send it to legal authorities who have the proper legal power and forensic tools to follow up on those leads.
As Sampson alluded to, when it comes to an assault on our democracy, an all-hands-on-deck strategy is needed — but everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction. Crowdsourced solutions to crime are as old as the wanted posters in Wild West post offices and as contemporary as Amber Alerts for missing children. Now, instead of cattle rustlers or kidnappers, we're being asked to help identify a different kind of outlaw — the kind who tries to steal our democracy.
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