The Texarkana Texas Police Department is on the lookout for a woman whose alleged offense has attracted a lot of attention and speculation on social media.
Last week the police posted on Facebook that the 26-year-old suspect from Nashville, Arkansas, was wanted for a felony, allegedly "Publishing Intimate Visual Material."
Let's just say that made the Facebook audience take notice. And more than a few felt compelled to share their own supposed insights into the case.
The police didn't go into a lot of detail about what happened. And in a follow-up post said, "As a matter of practice, we don't release information that will allow someone to identify a victim of a sex crime, so what we can say publicly here is very limited."
The department did say that most of the speculation was flat-out wrong.
But that's the way things go on social media. A lot of folks are quick to write comments, whether they know what the heck they are taking about or not. And others feel compelled to respond, again whether they know anything about the subject. And the whole thing becomes a free for all.
Another good reason not to pay much attention to what you read in Facebook comments. Or at least take them all with a lot of salt.