Some years ago, the FBI got in contact with me because I’d been put on an ISIS hit list. Apparently, this was a terror tactic. Large lists of American names were released online by foreign terrorists, and then the FBI was legally obliged to track us down and let us know.
The woman I spoke with told me she didn’t think it was a real threat; more likely, it was a way of draining the FBI’s resources from actually hunting down terrorists. She told me to call her if something suspicious happened. I kind of laughed, because this was Crown Heights, Brooklyn. But then I was nervous. And felt less safe. And never publicly told people, because I didn’t want to invite the wrong attention.
Today, I had to keep my daughter home from school because someone on Instagram threatened to shoot up her school. That person has been caught, I’m told, so she’s now apparently safe.
I’m told this has been happening at schools all over the country. Online, anonymous threats, that is. We already know the shootings have been happening.
And I have to wonder some things:
1) Public School is the one of the few social equalizers. It is an unimaginative and tragic target. But all targets are tragic.
2) I fail to see the ways social network, social anything, have improved this world.
3) Why is there zero regulation? Why do these hundred-billionaires not have to pay for internal monitors? They shift the responsibility instead to the taxpayer, breaking the system.
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