During the December active-shooter attack on Brown University, students used the anonymous campus message board Sidechat to share real-time information minutes before the university issued an official alert, an Associated Press analysis found. Nearly 8,000 posts over 36 hours captured students’ on-the-ground reports, questions about safety, and urgent pleas while sheltering in place. The episode highlights how informal, campus-specific social platforms can function as de facto emergency communication channels, complicating official notification strategies and evidence gathering for campus safety and crisis-response teams.