It was the night before last Sunday when a young man was arrested and arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman at Skoghall.
Just hours after the arrest, hatred, rumors and detailed information about the boats' privacy began to spread in various digital environments.
- In the name of truth, the brain is a fantastic construction and it is made for certain things. When it comes to social media and digital services, they trigger things that were once important for survival. It is to see dangers, to tell them about each other and to get a response to it. It has been important evolutionary but can be wrong when it comes out online, says Andreas Stjärnhem, an expert on social media at the digital innovation agency Sticky beat.
Suspected releaseA few days later, the murdered young man was released. There were no longer any suspicions that crimes had been committed.
But online, the hatred, the accusations and the privacy-sensitive details live on. And it has become increasingly common for people to be judged in advance online before it is even clear what has happened.
- One gives the other and this has escalated. It starts with someone thinking they saw something and sharing it in their group, or their clan, and get a response. It is shared further and quite quickly it becomes what was once only a reputation for truth. That's a big risk, of course, says Andreas Stjärnhem.