Social Media to the Rescue
The recent riots in Vancouver has exposed a new weapon in the fight against illegal or inappropriate conduct—social networking. The Police department in Vancouver had received over 3,500 e-mails which included 53 videos, 708 photos, and 1,011 hyperlinks to various social media sites. Some are saying that this is the first major incident in which social media has played such a prominent role in identifying what happened or who engaged in what activities. In fact a Facebook page was started called Vancouver Riot Pics that attracted more than 100,000 fans. Through this Facebook page over 100 people were tagged in various photos which made the police’s job much easier.