Following the Boston Marathon Explosions, there were many hoaxes invented that falsely stated the consecutive events.
The tragedy of the Boston Marathon happened on Monday, Apr. 15 at 2:56 pm. Two bombings occurred, the first one on the North side of Boylston Street, just before the marathon finish line. The second bombing occurred approximately ten seconds after the first bombing, further down the street.
Successive events after the explosion included Facebook posts and tweets, some holding false information.
The explosion injured 134 people as of 8:35 pm, from ABC news live updates, and killed three , one was an eight-year-old child.
There were tweets which said that the child was running for the sake of the Sandy Hook Shooting. Other posts included an alleged picture of the child running in the marathon with “Retweet for Respect” caption, even though only adults were able to compete in the Boston Marathon.
Furthermore, accounts on social networking sites were altered to include the Boston Marathon Explosion in order to acquire more likes, subscribers, and followers. One twitter account @_BostonMarathon, was shut down after many reposts of the hoax tweeted which said, “For every retweet we recieve we will donate $1 to the #BostonMarathon victims #PrayForBoston.”
Facebook page titles were changed to attract people to their pages. One title was renamed, “Thoughts go out to all involved in the Boston Explosion.” The page was created in December 2011, causing theories that the administrators were conspirators of the Marathon Explosion.
Likewise, YouTube video titles and videos were adjusted to include words of the Boston Marathon Explosion to attract more viewers.
The Westboro Baptist Church, which is known for its extreme ideologies, purged more of their hatred to homosexual marriage by tweeting, “Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of those dead by Boston Bombs! God sent the bombs in fury over [gay] marriage.”
Plus, Fox comedy show, “Family Guy” has an edited clip circulating, which depicts lead character Peter Griffin, using a cellphone to initiate bombs, which are heard in the background of the clip.
Overall, many are saying, using the Boston Marathon tragedy and false presumptions for publicity, is sickening.
