Brown University shooting Sidechat.

As a shooting unfolded at Brown University on Dec. 13, students turned to the anonymous app Sidechat to document fear, confusion and grief in real time — often before receiving official alerts. An Associated Press analysis of about 8,000 posts shows how the campus feed became an emergency log as students sheltered in place, debated misinformation, sought reassurance and grappled with the physical and emotional toll of a lockdown that lasted into the night. The posts reveal how social media now shapes students’ experience of campus violence, while also highlighting tensions with the speed and flower of information from college officials.