Global Social Media Manhunts: All Fun and Games?

The infamous Panther Five has pulled an audacious heist: they’ve stolen the world’s 3rd most expensive jewel. Now they’ve split up and fled to five different cities across the globe. And there’s a handsome reward if you can find them.
That is the fictional premise of Tag Challenge, a worldwide social media manhunt taking place on March 31. Real people will act as the five thieves, and teams must use social media to track them down using nothing but their mugshots. The winning team will receive $5,000. But there’s another twist: it’s sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. So is this all for fun, or is more at stake here? Joshua deLara  is the  co-founder and project coordinator of the Tag Challenge. Evan Ratliff  is founder of The Atavist and  was the focus of “Vanish: Finding Evan Ratliff,” a similar social media experiment sponsored by Wired in 2009.