Kara Alongi: Missing teen an example of Twitter use or abuse?
(Read article summary)Kara Alongi Tweeted about a home intruder before she disappeared, sparked a massive campaign to find her, and got police involved sooner than they would have been. Now there are questions about whether she abused Twitter.
Kara Alongi, the New Jersey teenager whose Tweet about a home intruder sparked a massive Twitter campaign to #helpfindkara was probably not kidnapped, police say. Rather, they say the evidence points toward the 16-year-old being an apparent runaway.
Police are still trying to track down the teen. News reports today say Alongi purchased a train ticket to New York City on the same day that she tweeted that someone was in her house. But the hot topic for a lot of those who have followed the Kara drama is something more general: the way social media has transformed not only this case, but law enforcement in general – and missing children cases in particular.
Twitter, with its massive number of users, has proved a boon to a number of advocacy campaigns. It has mobilized movements from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring; it has assisted law enforcement in finding missing children through Amber Alerts and helped reunite at least one woman with her dog.
