On Saturday, David Wesley Bobbitt, allegedly confined a 22-year-old woman in his Penticton, British Columbia thrift store, where he beat her and sexually assaulted her for over 12 hours while her young son watched.
The story horrified much of Canada, which has already launched a massive manhunt for the alleged criminal.
But while Bobbit’s face is plastered across television screens and his name is ringing out on radio stations throughout Canada, one person with a connection to the victim decided to turn to the social web.
He posted the story to Reddit.
“Reddit, My good friends girlfriend was brutally held hostage yesterday, chrisbouchard86 titled a post to the site. “Can we get this guys face all over the internet?”
Redditors obliged, giving the post over ten-thousand thousand upvotes and launching it to the site’s front page.
“Huge thanks go all the upvoters and comments,” chrisbouchard86, who did not respond from an interview request from the Daily Dot, wrote. “My heartfelt thank yous to you [all]”.
Redditors have been turning to Reddit to bring publicity to crimes for a while now. We’ve reported in the past how a victim of a violent beating turned to Reddit after his story was ignored by local media; and just yesterday we reported on two redditors who, coincidentally, tried to draw attention to the same hit-and-run accident.
Will it work?
“This was all over the radio this morning,” redditor eddsteel wrote. “His face is all over the media and a pretty major police manhunt is underway throughout BC and Alberta. I think they’re going to get him.”
But Reddit’s effectiveness in tracking down Bobbit is less important than the fact that it’s being used at all.
With 20 million unique visitors a month, Reddit is no longer the relatively small, insular place it once was. A spot on the site’s front page isn’t just a chance to reach a few hundred thousand well-meaning geeks — it’s a chance to reach millions of people around the world.
chrisbouchard86 didn’t post the image just for Reddit — in his own words, he wanted Bobbit’s picture “all over the Internet.”
A few weeks ago we wrote about how Twitter and other social media has already, in some ways, become the new milk carton.
Reddit and the rest of the social web may soon become the new home for wanted posters.