<p>Reddit, a popular social news and entertainment website, has apologised for posts on the site that had led to speculation that a missing Indian origin student could be one of the Boston bombing suspects.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"The crowdsourced, more criminal investigation was very volatile and fraught with problems, and, obviously, wrong," Reddit general manager Erik Martin told CNN. "That was something we all wished hadn't happened."<br /><br />The moderator of a subreddit, or comment thread titled findbostonbombers, which had been set up to crowdsource the identities of the bombers, also apologized, the channel said.<br /><br />One group of redditors, as the site's users are known, had speculated that Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student who has been missing since last month, could be a possible suspect. Tripathi's family temporarily took down a Facebook page asking for help finding him after they were bombarded by ugly comments.<br /><br />Other Reddit users focused on two young men with heavy-looking bags, one of whom wore a blue track suit.<br /><br />The New York Post even splashed a photo of the two marathon spectators on its front page with the headline, "Bag Men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon."<br /><br />The guy in the track suit turned out to be a 17-year-old suburban Boston track star who told a news agency he was afraid to leave his house because of the scrutiny, CNN reported.<br /><br />Critics too have posted scathing comments on the Reddit fiasco. The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal wrote a column called "Hey Reddit, Enough Boston Bombing Vigilantism," and followed it up with a story on how the names of two innocent people got repeated in a viral loop on social media.</p>
<p>Reddit, a popular social news and entertainment website, has apologised for posts on the site that had led to speculation that a missing Indian origin student could be one of the Boston bombing suspects.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"The crowdsourced, more criminal investigation was very volatile and fraught with problems, and, obviously, wrong," Reddit general manager Erik Martin told CNN. "That was something we all wished hadn't happened."<br /><br />The moderator of a subreddit, or comment thread titled findbostonbombers, which had been set up to crowdsource the identities of the bombers, also apologized, the channel said.<br /><br />One group of redditors, as the site's users are known, had speculated that Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student who has been missing since last month, could be a possible suspect. Tripathi's family temporarily took down a Facebook page asking for help finding him after they were bombarded by ugly comments.<br /><br />Other Reddit users focused on two young men with heavy-looking bags, one of whom wore a blue track suit.<br /><br />The New York Post even splashed a photo of the two marathon spectators on its front page with the headline, "Bag Men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon."<br /><br />The guy in the track suit turned out to be a 17-year-old suburban Boston track star who told a news agency he was afraid to leave his house because of the scrutiny, CNN reported.<br /><br />Critics too have posted scathing comments on the Reddit fiasco. The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal wrote a column called "Hey Reddit, Enough Boston Bombing Vigilantism," and followed it up with a story on how the names of two innocent people got repeated in a viral loop on social media.</p>