What happens when the internet thinks you’re responsible for a mass shooting

The gunman responsible for the tragic shooting in Jacksonville was not a Reddit user named Ravenchamps, but that didn't stop right-wing propaganda sites and a bunch of rabid forums from naming him anyway. He's just some guy on Reddit (a giant forum beloved by dweebs, myself included) who posted about video games and help with his homework. In the wake of the Jacksonville massacre, he was named as the perpetrator David Katz, who is now dead.

He was identified by conservative ghouls and far-right subreddits, with absolutely zero proof – just a couple of anti-Trump comments he made, poking fun at the president's supporters.

After news sites had picked up on his account, Ravenchamps surfaced to post: "Hi guys I'm alive and well, what are you dumbfucks doing exactly?"

He started debunking the threads naming him as the shooter, including on one where he was called "a cowardly, neurotic jew [who] hated Trump."

Ravenchamps then hosted an AMA called "I'm apparently the madden shooter what's up." A user asked him how it feels to be misidentified as an mass-shooter who fired on multiple people before turning the gun on himself. "I was surprised how smart some people are to figure it out themselves that I'm not him," Ravenchamps said.

He believes the reason he was suspected was because of his username – he's a fan of the Baltimore Ravens, lives in Maryland and is a fan of Madden, which were facts true of the Jacksonville shooter but also presumably tens of thousands of other young men.

"What's it like to be the center of next 'WE DID IT REDDIT'-like scandal?" asked another user. "Confused at first, now I'm just laughing about it," said Ravenchamps. He added that he is now considering legal action.

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@hshukman