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 Linda Thomas
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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steubenville-rape-trial.jpg
Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond in the courtroom before the Steubenville, Ohio football players were convicted of rape. (AP/Pool Photo)

We are Big Brother: How social media led to rape convictions

March 17, 2013 @ 3:09 pm (Updated: 11:21 am - 3/18/13 )

When it comes to police drones hovering over Seattle or surveillance cameras watching us along Alki and the waterfront, people say to authorities, "Stop, you can't invade my privacy."

In reality, we do a fine job of invading our own privacy every day - either by willingly posting things on social media sites, or unknowingly as friends and strangers post all around us.

Sometimes, it's a good thing that so many eyes are watching us. If not for social media, a rape in a small town might have gone unnoticed and likely untried.

Two teenage boys were convicted Sunday in an Ohio rape case. The town of Steubenville, Ohio has about the same size population as Silverdale, Washington - about 19,000 people.

It's one of those classic small towns where parents and children rally around the high school football team, because there's not much else going on.

"Drunk on their own small-town greatness, they operated unaware of common decency until they went too far, wrote too much, bragged too many times and, finally, on a cold Sunday morning, were hauled out of a small third-floor courtroom as a couple of common criminals," wrote Dan Wetzel, a Yahoo sports columnist who covered the trial of two football players.

Steubenville football players 17-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunk 16-year-old girl.

Mays was sentenced to a minimum of two years in detention. Richmond was sentenced to a minimum of one year of detention. Mays received the extra year for a charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

The judge said he reviewed the text messages, photos and video while considering his verdict and found them "profane and ugly."

It's not over yet. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced after the verdict that he'll convene a Grand Jury next month, and as 16 other teens facing possible charges.

This case gained media attention for its lurid text messages, cell phone pictures and videos, and social media posts surrounding the sexual abuse of the girl.

The young criminals and their friends provided much of the evidence used against them as they posted pictures and statements about what they'd done on social media.

It started with an Instagram photo of the two players displaying their 16-year-old victim. One teen held her arms and the other held her legs.

After that, a 12-minute video from the night of the assault was posted. In it, a former classmate of the young men can be seen laughing at the girl and making fun of how "dead" and out of it she was.

Next came all the text messages from the boys. In one text admitted as evidence in court, the attacker wrote: "I'm pissed all I got was a hand job, though. I should have raped since everyone thinks I did." They sent texts to the victim trying to get her to say nothing happened.

All of this documentation helped prosecutors build the case against the boys. What might have otherwise been a "he said, she said" incident with little evidence, turned into a world-wide story.

Even the hacker group Anonymous was in on this one, posting the video and publishing all of the names of the high school football players they claimed were involved, not just the two convicted.

The Internet never forgets and seldom forgives. Years from now, after the teens are finished with their sentences, a search of Steubenville will turn up stories about this rape case that has ruined lives and tarnished the reputation of a town and its beloved "Big Red" football program.

For those who thought social media was a fad, sorry, it's ingrained in many people's lives and it will become magnified as new technology makes it even easier to share video, audio, and pictures that you might not want out there. Google Glass, for example, will make it so someone can record a video of you simply by looking in your direction.

Who's Big Brother? In George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," he describes a society where everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities - through telescreens.

We are Big Brother. In our society, everyone is potentially under surveillance by their friends, neighbors, and strangers - through social media.

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (19)


  • Add A Comment

  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    When I was young C.B radio was the social media of the day.
    March 17, 2013 5:13 pm
    Anonymous nuts ruined it by abuse and stupidity.Now everyone thinks they have to text and drive , probably on facebook. Big deal!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    "Anonymous nuts ruined it by abuse and stupidity"..,Ron Spins
    March 17, 2013 7:05 pm

    One of the differences between most social media sites and places where frustrated people go to call names from behind a cloak of anonymity is that you are at least supposed to be who you claim to be on the social media sites.

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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    @Chuck Gould
    March 17, 2013 7:10 pm
    Where is that requirement to post your real identity?Almost everyone uses an alias.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Ron????
    March 18, 2013 7:42 am
    I have to disagree that "almost everyone uses an alias" on the social media sites. One of my business enterprises has a site with currently about 1350 "likes". I don't know all of the people personally- but I know a lot of them, and none of them use an alias.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Sixteen more alleged teen rapists to be tried?
    March 17, 2013 7:09 pm

    Why did not a single one of these 18 kids stop to think that what they were doing was probably wrong? Definitely wrong would have been a better conclusion- but these kids didn't have a clue that they were cruelly victimizing a young girl. Maybe the biggest jerk in the batch is the guy who now regrets that he settled for a hand j*b (gimme a break with the filter!) instead of vaginal sex. Too bad you can't just "reboot" a kid.

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  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Why did not a single one of these 18 kids stop to think that what they were doing was probably wrong?
    March 17, 2013 7:14 pm
    @Chuck Gould ..alcohol was involved.. binge drinking...and that's no excuse.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    I'm wondering if new social media stuff
    March 18, 2013 6:42 am
    Is also driving behavior...i.e. the murderers that seek instant infamous attention, can't wait to get their name in print, and now everyone with a phone camera or video going out of their way to get on tape. Not a fan of social media at all.
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  • R L M 456 wrote...
    Look how many lives are changed forever
    March 18, 2013 7:02 am
    I am glad justice for the victim was found

    but everyone near this has had their life altered forever

    that is a reason I do not use Facebook

    I have seen it's detructive use first hand

    once "send" is hit

    it is to late to undo the damage to innocent souls

    this event came out correct

    many "sends" do not.

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  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    This is off topic a bit - but it is quite bizzare
    March 18, 2013 7:16 am
    Some people will scream about having thier privacy rights denied WHILE they post the most personal, detailed accouting of thier own private lives for -if not all to see- at least a LARGE group of folks considered thier 'facebook friends'. They give away thier privacy by the bucketful, yet 'how dare do something that may impact my privacy in public'.... And yes, I'm glad that the first two have been convicted, and that it appears that many more will be charged, and that the victim can have at least a tiny bit of justice for what happened to her.
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  • maplefish wrote...
    Sarg
    March 18, 2013 9:19 am
    You nailed it.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • awbitf wrote...
    There's a huge difference here
    March 18, 2013 10:53 am
    When you give your privacy away, typically in exchange for something (being connected with your friends via social media) you are opting-in to that. No one is forced to join a social media site, or if they do, they are not forced to make public information that they do not want known to all.

    Privacy issues such as public cameras or electronic surveillance are big news right now because it is nothing anyone has opted in to, it is being forced upon us all.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Splinge wrote...
    How True...
    March 18, 2013 8:47 am
    I am glad to see my thoughts verified by someone in journalism. Maybe not so much the tattling aspect, though in this case it seems to have worked out. But, I have long thought of the cries from people of government surveillance, all the while Facebook and other social media is jammed with massive TMI and human debris. All the government has to do is park a bunch of their employees in front of PC's and give them an ample supply of coffee and doughnuts and they have a surveillance team unequaled by any other.
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  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    @Splinge
    March 18, 2013 10:52 am
    You got it there bud. It's silly how paranoid some people are about thier privacy - yet they parade the most intimate parts of thier life for the public on social media sites. And you're right. a bunch of folks with coffee, no-doze, donuts and PC's can learn far, far more than the government can by the majority of things folks whine about for 'thier privacy'. And what nearly all of these whiners don't acknowledge is that private companies ALREADY do this kind of thing to sell your information and your internet habits to companies. (How do you think you see internet ads ad nausem for things you look up on the internet??? Go do some 5 to 10 price comparisons and/or research on 5 to 10 things on the internet and see how quickly and how often advertisements show up in your browers for the very thing you just looked up!)
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  • awbitf wrote...
    Every time I hear about this story
    March 18, 2013 10:48 am
    It's always told/written as if the only reason these two have been convicted is because they played high school football. These two did a haneous act, why does the media focus so much on their (former) hobbies? Just call them high school rapists.
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  • spuddog wrote...
    awbitf...
    March 18, 2013 12:29 pm
    I was having the same reaction to the football player references, but as I read more about the case, it appears that because of their player status and because of the importance of the football team to the community (nine state championships I think), there may have been an attempt at a cover up and this may go as high as the head coach. You are correct, they are high school rapists, but it seems that the football angle is pertinent.
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  • Cbrew wrote...
    Did it really take....
    March 18, 2013 11:54 am
    a media firestorm to get someone to investigate this crime? Criminals dumb enough to put digital fingerprints all over a crime like this are not only dangerous but also very brazen, how they were able to commit a crime like this and then have the impression that they could openly discuss it and not get in trouble is beyond me... that's a f'd up little town you ask me.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Burn_Notice wrote...
    That's The Fact Jack!
    March 18, 2013 12:34 pm
    Linda brings up some really good points that social pundits pontificate and dissect and lawyers have been telling their clients for years; what you post/show on the Internet can one day be your undoing in court. In really important matters like losing custody of your kids or modification of your visitation. Everything you do and everything you post becomes viewed through the subjective lens of audience looking into who you are as a parent, friend, current or future employee. Are you a security or liability risk when you post pics of you and your friends hammered in Cabo? Do you possess questionable parenting skills? Are a danger to your kids because you threaten your ex on his/her facebook wall? You post pictures of yourself in various degrees of undress? Will any of this negatively affect you? Who the heck knows, but one thing for sure is you never know if one day it is going to be used adversely to your interests.

    Additionally, it is not always what you hear about that messes with your life from what you put on the Internet for the world to see, but all those things that people make decisions about you that you never even hear about. Like how come you didn't get that job you thought you were a shoe-in for? They'll never tell you it was because they were following you on twitter.

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