PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Brown University is urging everyone to refrain from “harmful doxxing activity” as the search for the gunman who killed two students and injured nine others over the weekend continues.
“In the aftermath of the shooting, we’ve seen harmful doxxing activity directed toward at least one member of the Brown University community,” school spokesperson Brian Clark said in a statement.
Doxxing is described as searching for and publishing private or identifiable information about someone online, usually with malicious intent.
“It’s important to make clear that targeting individuals could do irrevocable harm,” Clark added. “Accusations, speculation and conspiracies we’re seeing on social media and in some news reports are irresponsible, harmful and in some cases dangerous for the safety of individuals in our community.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha fielded questions about rumors circulating on social media about a certain student during a media briefing Tuesday evening.
Those rumors revolve around why Brown University removed pages from its website about this particular student.
“I think this is where caution is really necessary,” he said. “There are lots of reasons why a page might be taken down.”
Brown University President Christina Paxson admitted during the same briefing that she didn’t know anything about pages being removed.
Though Clark did not explain why Brown University scrubbed those pages, he did echo Neronha’s sentiment.
“It is not unusual as a safety measure to take steps to protect an individual’s safety when this kind of activity happens, including in regard to their online presence,” he said.
Neronha said speculating about the gunman or a possible motive online is “a really dangerous road to go down.”
“If that name meant anything to this investigation, we would be out looking for that person. We will let you know we were looking for that person,” he said.
Neronha’s reaction was similar after a person of interest in the shooting was released without being charged.
He acknowledged that media outlets were identifying that person of interest by name after it was leaked to reporters.
“It’s hard to put that back in the bottle,” he said at the time.