Conspiracies swirled after the massacre at Sandy Hook as fringe groups on the Internet picked apart police video and media reports, in some cases causing pain and suffering to real victims they accused of being "actors." But one person is attempting to prevent something similar from happening in the aftermath of Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon.
Theorists attempting to use the domain, BostonMarathonConspiracy.com, will find themselves too late. The URL has already been secured by a person concerned it could be used to host conspiracy theories.
This is the text that appears on the Boston Marathon conspiracy theory website:
I BOUGHT THIS DOMAIN TO KEEP SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY KOOK FROM OWNING IT.
PLEASE KEEP THE VICTIMS OF THIS EVENT AND THEIR FAMILIES IN YOUR THOUGHTS.
THANK YOU.
Of course, this selfless act will not be enough to stop conspiracy theorists. Already, less than 24 hours after the tragedy, theories have circulated about a man photographed on a nearby roof and a memorial website allegedly set up before the bombings took place.
Right wing activist Alex Jones and his infamous conspiracy site, Info Wars, have also suggested that the attack was orchestrated by the American government as a "false flag" to infringe on civil liberties.
But just as with Sandy Hook, most of these theories probably can be chalked up to coincidences, rampant speculation or Internet imperfections.
Slate points out that Boston "truthers" may be stymied in their efforts to reinterpret this particular event due to the sheer number of witnesses, quality and comprehensiveness of footage and the fact that there is no real political motive for officials to lie.
UPDATE: Two similar domains, bostonmarathonconspiracies.com and bostonconspiracies.com, have now also been bought up by people attempting to keep them out of the hands of real conspiracy theorists.
Related
Before You Go
