about people adding stories to the Boston victims?

[DearJohnLoveSavannah]

A photo was being circulated last night on twitter of a little 8 year old girl running with the caption - R.i.p my heart and prayers go out to her parents may her soul rest in peace and harmony ( she was just 8).

The Joe Cassella foundation even had to write - "We would like to clarify that the picture circulating on the web and Twitter of a little girl wearing a Joe Cassella 5K bib claiming to have been killed at the Boston marathon is being used fraudulently."

And now on FB I have just seen a photo of a man lying on the floor during the aftermath with blood everywhere - the photo was captioned was about how he planned to propose to his girlfriend after she crossed the finish line but she passed away.

Why do people feel the need to add these fake stories to an already senseless tragedy?

because they want to grab attention for themselves using other people's tragedies to do so.

variation on the oh, X terrible thing has happened to someone else, let's focus on how I feel. Oh poor me.

competitive grief? I am such a great person I am sobbing my heart out over this?

gawping.

Making yourself part of something that you aren't part of (thankfully. obviously I wouldn't wish that they were)

YANBU. Grief-porn, I think somebody called it.

I think it's horrid and some of the 'tributes' I've seen on online are very disrespectful.

The picture of the little girl running popped up on my news feed (Facebook) with the addition that she was running for the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings.

What sort of person creates these things?

YANBU. Pointless and detracting from the real lives lost. It must be the same sort of person who makes up those "warning, share with all your friends, a madman is on the loose raping young teenagers" type things. Along with the completely twee and obvious "Share this picture if you love your children" posts on FB.

Because they are self absorbed wankers.

To feed the conspiracy theorists ?

They do cause people to then doubt the coverage of an event.

YANBU. Can't stand these but unfortunately can't seem to avoid them. If I see them on FB, I hide them from my feed. They're all "me, me, me" (whoever makes them in the first place).

It's fraud. Somebody circulates something like that, aiming to get thousands of likes. Then the picture and comments get erased, and page gets sold to a company who want their page to appear more popular due to having so many "likes".

This is the case with most pity mongering pictures and stories on Facebook - don't have a link as I'm on my phone, sorry

I never ever share this shit or like them - they make my teeth itch and doubt the intelligence of people who do.

Just seen the photo of the little girl again. With the caption - see this girl here? She died today. etc.

It makes me so angry! I reported it straight away.

But it's hard to report on FB - because it's not graphic, porn or violent. It just doesn't seem to fall into any of categories listed.

And then it says wear red "tommarow" to support her and the others that died.

I don't understand why people don't get that by sharing or commenting on things it's making the situation worse. There's so many child abuse videos on fb (as if abuse isn't bad enough already without having it shared with everyone online) and everyone seems to feel the need to comment how wrong it is or how sick the person is but the only thing it achieves is keeping the thing going and making it show up on even more people's feeds. My fb friends must get sick of my links to snopes!

I don't comment or share on it Letitsnow I just report it as soon as I see it.

It's a disgusting that the photo has over 6,000 comments and 82,000 shares.

It says wear red tomorrow. Is it just me or am I being rather suspicious that the Anti Thatcher protesters have asked people to wear red tomorrow for MT funeral? And the picture says wear read tomorrow.

I'm sick of all the pics too. The guy who was going to propose and now one of a suspicious shadow of someone on a roof near the marathon route. I've started deleting people.

Just delete or hide these things.

Please DON'T report on FB.

OldLadyKnowsNothing

What was the point in posting that?

Yes I'm still going to report a photo circulating around of a little girl who sick people claims to have been killed.

What if that was your daughter?

It is offensive. There is no question about it.

Did you read the bit about the child who was raped, because her plea for help was seen too late? These photos may be offensive but no-one's life it at risk.

can't bear any of the grief porn stuff. And I am equally at people who say "oh I can't stop crying/sobbing/

I never report any of this stuff I just ignore it, but really, no-one is going to lose their life because someone reported something that to them was offensive but not life-threatening. If people stopped posting this bollocks on facebook in the first place then it wouldn't come to that. As it is I think all of those kinds of pictures are bullshit and wouldn't report a "my life is in danger one" any more than a "wear red for this unknown-to-the-world-but-for-the-million likes on her page victim ones.

A bit daft saying don't report ANYTHYNG on Facebook. Sure, some might be petty. What about BNP/EDL propaganda? Should we let that spread?

As for "pity porn" ( stealing that btw, perfect description!)- I haven't seen any Boston marathon ones yet, but yes, I would report. It's someone making money out of other people's tragedies. It's cynical and offensive

A bit daft saying don't report ANYTHYNG on Facebook.

Exactly.