What Does The Internet Have To Do With The Finnish School Shooting?

from the absolutely-nothing dept

The story of the Finnish school shooting that left 11 people (including the shooter) dead is certainly a tragedy, and you can understand why people immediately respond to such things by looking for something to blame, or some law or process that needs to be changed -- but at some point you have to admit that it's going to be impossible to totally prevent such actions. Yet, for some reason, people always want to place some sort of "blame" for these sorts of things on the internet. Witness comments from Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, where he talks about various changes to look at, such as with gun laws, but also says:

"The internet and YouTube forums... are not another planet. This is part of our world and we adults have the responsibility to check what is happening, and create borders and safety there."

But, the thing is, those channels are being monitored, and they were watched in this case. In fact, as nearly every press report on the shooting mentions, police visited the shooter a day before the shooting, due to a YouTube video he posted where he was heard pointing a gun at the camera and saying "you will die next." So it's difficult to see how the internet is even remotely worth calling out here. The internet was used to alert authorities, it's just that there wasn't any evidence of a crime or intention to commit a crime at that point. So why bring it up at all?

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