Police, Social Networking | featured news

Reddit apologized for the 'dangerous speculation' on the site that pointed fingers at the student. A body pulled from the water off Indian Point Park in Rhode Island has been identified as the Brown University student mistakenly linked by amateur sleuths on a social media site to the Boston bombings.

Tucsonans flooded social media sites Wednesday night speculating on what caused a loud boom heard — and felt — over a chunk of the city. Tweet messages started about 7:45 p.m., many from residents of Tucson's west side, saying a large explosion rattled windows at some homes. Tucson police received reports of two jets flying over about 7:40 p.m., just seconds before the boom was heard, said spokesman Sgt. Chris Widmer. But it still isn't known it was a sonic boom.

Police found a woman’s decapitated body in a Mexican border city on Saturday, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site. The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the internet.

Two men have been jailed for four years each in northwest England for inciting disorder via social networking sites as rioting and looting erupted in London and other cities last week, police said Tuesday.

Police in Philadelphia say a 20-year-old woman posted an open offer of $1,000 to kill the father of her child and a man responded that he'd do the killing. Investigators say London Eley posted a message last month on Facebook saying, "I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father."

It appears that law enforcement officers are finding it too difficult to track the Facebook messages.

A controversial Twitter user has been challenging South African authorities by alerting thousands of followers to speed traps set by traffic police.

An escaped British prisoner is taunting police and attracting a growing fan base from a Facebook profile page.