In Pirate Life, Page 9 www.thesetonian.com
Volume 92, Issue 3
September 17, 2015
‘Social media threat’ alarms campus
Investigators identify anonymous off-campus poster Emily Balan News Editor Shocked is a word that some students used to describe how they felt after receiving the “Social Media Threat” Pirate Alert just before heading to the cafeteria for lunch on Sept. 15. According to the message from Public Safety and Security, an anonymous person issued “an implied threat” on the social media app Yik Yak, a content sharing app in which users in the same geographical area post and respond to text and pictures anonymously. The message warned people to stay away from the cafeteria at 12:25 p.m. that day or they would “regret it.” SOPD immediately started their investigation, continuing it on campus the next morning around 8 a.m., according to Linfante. This included a bomb squad from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office sweeping the cafeteria for any potential dangers. This sweep found nothing suspicious. As of Sept. 16, the official police investigation closed after the authorities discovered the identity of the responsible party. This person is a juvenile who does not go to Seton Hall but lives in the nearby area. The identified person was allegedly speaking of a disturbance at the institution the juvenile attends. SOPD found the anonymous user through the cooperation of Yik Yak officials. South Orange Police Department’s Chief James Chelel said the police talked to the juvenile about the incident but did not press charges because the person was underage.
“I think the message to the students is, you can’t post anything like this on social media because the police will investigate and they do take it seriously,” Linfante said, commenting that the police have to act without knowing whether a threat is real or a joke. “And it costs a lot of money to do this. When you think about all the money spent doing this…it takes a lot of resources and energy and there’s a cost,” he said. “You post something like this, you will get a police response,” Linfante said. Chief Chelel agreed that posting on social media can have unintended consequences. “You have to give serious thought as to what you’re going to post out there,” he said. Though the University’s Public Relations Department has someone monitoring social media for things like this, Patrick Linfante, assistant vice president for public safety, said that a resident student who saw the post initially notified a residence hall staff member on Sept. 14. This action resulted in Public Safety contacting the South Orange Police Department to make an official report. “It’s something that has to be taken seriously, our obligation that everyone on campus is safe,” Chief Chelel said. Dr. Tracy Gottlieb, vice president of student services, said, “In this hyper-media climate when bad things actually do happen, we can’t ignore anything. We need to take all perceived threats seriously and I was grateful to the entire community that they responded responsibly, maturely and cooperatively to our work.”
Savor the garden of Seton In News, Page 5
Emily Balan/News Editor A police car stationed outside of the Bishop Dougherty University Center, where the Pirate Dining room is located, on Tuesday. Edward Krayewski is a journalism professor and writer for Reason.com, a job that requires him to use social media to report on law enforcement issues. Krayewski warns that anonymity on the internet is almost impossible in today’s age. “It’s important to know that nothing is anonymous on the internet,” he said, pointing to the fact that in order to sign up for Yik Yak, you must provide a working cell phone number. Krayewski said that many
young people who grew up with the internet seem to take it for granted because they assume they are unreachable. In reality, he said, there is a way to find even anonymous social media users if pursued through the proper legal channels. In reconciling the view that the post was simply a post with no legitimate threatening merit yet law enforcement reacted anyway, Krayewski said, “It’s not the worst thing to have an abundance of caution.”
However, he said, social media can be a tricky thing to navigate because, although caution is preferred, on the other hand, “it makes (any perceived threat on social media) more powerful, because now you know that I can tweet something and get the Police Department to respond.” Melissa May, a professor of public relations who has experience in social media, said, “It’s part of the reality of our world today that we
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