SCRANTON, Pa. — The Idaho murder case is opening up a conversation about the impact of social media on criminal investigations.
It makes sense that the Idaho murder case would intrigue a criminology professor like Dr. Michael Jenkins and animate the students in his classes at the University of Scranton.
“So I first heard about the case, I think a month after it occurred when the news was hey, there is no news. And to me, that is what was kind of noteworthy,” said Dr. Jenkins.
Millions of people across the globe agreed and started following the case closely.
Before police had their suspect, social media users had theirs.
People shared countless theories, fancying themselves true crime detectives.
One TikToker is even getting sued for defamation after she accused a University of Idaho professor of murdering the 4 students.
Dr. Jenkins says it's one thing to be curious about the case it's another to actually make accusations and that line is becoming blurry on social media.
A TikTok user, for example, isn't bound to uphold the same standards as a police department or a judge Dr. Jenkins said.
“So when we have these, you know, keyboard cops and these internet sleuths that are working to figure out "whodunnit", oftentimes, they're not conducting their own investigations with any type of eye towards the rights that people enjoy.”
Social media certainly had a hand in the tens of thousands of tips police received.
But police in Idaho said plenty of those tips were based on rumors.
“So that's where we start to see this drain on police resources because obviously, they have the desire to go down every road that could possibly lead them to the suspect and to a deeper understanding of what happened,” Dr. Jenkins explained. “But when they're inundated with 99% of these leads being completely unfounded and baseless, that's going to take away police attention from those areas that they need to be pursuing.”
Still, police are asking for tips about suspect Bryan Kohberger.