Oops ain’t the half of it

THE HARASSMENT started right away. After a familiar-looking man was photographed among the kluxers in Charlottesville the other night, social media types tracked him to the University of Arkansas. Specifically its biomedical engineering department.

After all, this guy was wearing an “Arkansas Engineering” T-shirt, so it didn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out where he was from. And he was walking among the folks chanting “Jews will not replace us,” so he deserved to be called out. In no time at all, somebody found the guy on the UA website and tracked down his name and information. And published his address online. Then the phone calls started coming in. And emails. And tweets from angry strangers. That’ll show him!

Except . . . .

It wasn’t the right man.

Kyle Quinn never asked for this, but he got it just the same. The assistant professor of biomedical engineering was probably biomedically engineering something up the other night right there in northwest Arkansas when the neo-Nazis were doing their thing on the other side of the country. But, innocent as a lamb, he was dragged into this thing anyway.

Word is coming through that some social media types culled an image from the university’s website and compared it to a photograph from the rally/riot/murder scene in Charlottesville, and thought Professor Quinn looked like one of the people with torches. And wrongly concluded that they had their man.

Kyle Quinn says he and his wife noticed that their address—their actual living address, not just email—was posted online sometime Saturday night:

“I thought it was ridiculous and I was shocked, but I didn’t really understand what was about to happen and the kind of emails and phone calls and posting online that I was about to get.”

That would change.

Not only was he subject to threats and taunts online, and on the phone, but the website change.org posted a petition demanding Mr. Quinn’s resignation from the school for a time.

When the Quinns saw their physical address posted, they went to stay with relatives. Call them prudent.

Amy Schlesing—who was a war correspondent for this paper once upon a time, along with other duties like covering hurricanes—now works in communications at the university. She said once the school found out what was happening, it went to work to correct the error and flag misinformation. But dodging enemy fire and wind-tossed billboards might prove easier than cleaning up this online mess.

The good news, if there is any, may be that this snafu could be a great teaching point for Professor Quinn. For he teaches this stuff.

His “class is all about developing computational methods to compare images and evaluate images in a completely objective fashion.” And this particular case of mistaken identity shows “the inherent subjectivity” when people compare faces.

The lesson to the rest of us: Read the paper. You gets your news from Facebook, you takes your chances.