Boston Marathon Explosions: What Is Fact And What Is A Hoax?

The Boston Marathon explosions left the city of Boston shocked, stunned and broken. With three confirmed dead and over 100 victims injured, the world is praying for Boston. However, sites like Twitter and Facebook have begun to mix facts with hoaxes and many fake stories went viral.

These hoax stories display the down side to social media sites and how reactions in the Internet age can be misguided. Support is not shown through a retweet, a like or a hashtag. Support can be shown through action that's physical and intellectual, not through web surfing.

While this is the unfortunate aspect of Twitter and Facebook, there were positive actions taken on social media to prevent fear and control the chaos in Boston following the bombings. The Boston Police Department was tweeting instructions, information and words of support. Hotline numbers were provided for those reporting an emergency and for those attempting to locate loved one. Locations to donate blood were tweeted out, updated information on the continuing information and more were provided by the Boston PD.

The first hoax was the man who planned to propose to his girlfriend at the finish line. A Getty image produced by The Boston Globe shows a younger man in a red shirt, kneeling on the ground and cradling the head of a woman in his arms. The photo is emotional; however the heartbreaking story that went viral with the image is a hoax.

"The man in the red shirt planned to propose to his girlfriend as he crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon, but she passed away" it reads. "Most of us will never experience this amount of emotional pain." This story is false, while the image is real. The image was captioning by Getty as a man comforting an injured woman at the finish line. Another fake story that went viral in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings was that a young girl died at the finish line. An image of a young girl running went viral with the caption "8-year old girl who died in the Boston Marathon explosions was running for Sandy Hook victims." The photo is from another marathon, the photo shows that her runner's bib is from the Joe Cassella 5K in Great Falls, Virginia.

On Tuesday, organizers of that race shot down the tale on their Facebook account. "We would like to clarify that the picture circulating on the web and Twitter of a little girl wearing a Joe Cassella 5K bib claiming to have been killed at the Boston marathon is being used fraudulently," read the page for the Joe Cassella Foundation. The group raises funds for the families of children who are ill in the Washington area.

The truth is that there was an 8-year old victim, Martin Richard. Richard was identified as one of the victims Monday night and was a spectator at the race; standing at the finish line as he waited to greet his father when the first bomb went off.

The last hoax was the story of the Boston Police shutting down cell phone service. Twitter went into a frenzy with reports of the authorities shutting down cell service to networks to prevent an attacker from using a cell phone to detonate another explosive.

However, like the other hoaxes that went viral, the authorities did not shut down cell phone service. Boston's network was overwhelmed with the volume of calls and other communications in the aftermath of the attack.

So while we are still mourning for the tragic event that struck at the Boston Marathon remember to check your information received online multiple times before believing anything.