The crowdsourcing literature is dominated by the view that the crowd can be controlled and that owners should adopt different technologies to control it and its output. This paper questions the agency and role of the crowd. Specifically, it questions how and to what extent can control over the crowd be exercised. To this end, the paper adopts an interpretive approach to the enquiry. It examines a case of crowdsourcing in the understudied area of humanitarian response. Concepts from structuration theory are adopted to interpret the data. The analysis reveals the paradox of crowd interaction and owner control in crowdsourcing. It shows the crowd to be made up of knowledgeable and reflexive groups that effectively tackle methods aimed at controlling them. The implications of the study are then discussed.