After the Brown University shooting, right-media baselessly attacked a Palestinian student as a suspect
After a shooting at Brown University left two dead, right-wing media figures launched a baseless and Islamophobic campaign to falsely tie a Palestinian student to the killings.
During the manhunt for the shooter, Brown University appeared to remove several web pages containing mentions of Mustapha Kharbouch, a student targeted by social media figures as a potential suspect, “as a safety measure” after he was apparently doxxed. Kharbouch was not named as a suspect by police, but social media figures claimed he was the person of interest in closed-circuit television footage, with several claiming that the deletion of pages was part of a conspiracy to shield him. The university responded that the pages were removed as a “safety measure,” however, and called the speculation “dangerous for the safety of individuals in our community.” The university noted, “In the aftermath of the shooting, we’ve seen harmful doxxing activity directed toward at least one member of the Brown University community.”
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