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Twitter for emergencies: A formidable lifesaving social media tool for communities and networks

Abstract

Twitter has dramatically changed communication and social interactions during emergencies worldwide providing timely on-the-ground emergency information, posting real-time alerts and quick user response that helped communities and networks save lives. Empirical studies on the use of social media for emergencies and disaster management have shown that Twitter appears to be the most frequently used as it has unique characteristics suitable for frequent broadcasting and timely information access. However, Twitter faces challenges and threats with the rise of misinformation that could degrade its purpose. Today, there is a need for people to act with social responsibility, ethical conduct and do the right thing during emergencies and Twitter to use tools that automatically detect misinformation with vigilant fact checkers to help mitigate its misuse. Although Twitter can be used maliciously during disasters and emergencies, it is a formidable lifesaving tool that can raise awareness, communicate risks and mitigate impact to empower and promote recovery of communities and networks.

Introduction

With about 330 million users worldwide (Statista, 2019) and about 500 million tweets a day (Smith, 2020), Twitter has changed social interactions; communications are now in people’s fingertips. In particular, the social media platform has dramatically changed communications and social interactions during emergencies. For example, Twitter became the “go-service” during the March 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake that triggered tsunami and nuclear emergencies as Japan’s phone system was knocked down and during Hurricane Sandy in the U.S.A in October 2012, when Twitter was used for providing timely information helping people safe and informed (Doan et al., 2016; Panagiotopoulos et al., 2016; Taylor, 2011). However, misinformation and misuse of social media is also a risk during emergency situations as demonstrated during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing (Gupta et al., 2013). It is important for people to act with social responsibility and ethical conduct during emergencies and disasters to ensure that social communications are accurate, relevant, timely and from reliable sources. Although Twitter can be used maliciously during disasters and emergencies, it is a formidable lifesaving tool that can raise awareness, communicate risks and mitigate impact to empower and promote recovery of communities and networks.

Turning Emergency Communication to Twitter

Social media platforms such as Twitter can empower and promote community recovery during disaster situations. From the 2007 USA Southern California Wildfire, the use of Twitter and other social media for disaster management has widened across different emergency services in developed and developing countries (Chatfield et al., 2014). During crises and natural disasters, the general public provides on-the-ground information that can facilitate awareness of critical situations for better emergency response (Yin et al., 2015). The timely and reliable information required in the risk communication helps authorities to make the situation under control (Panagiotopoulos et al., 2016). Furthermore, government agencies worldwide turned to Twitter in communicating to the public such as posting real-time emergency alerts from widespread power outages, bushfires, flash floods, electrical fires and other hazards to event notifications. Real-time updates on their Twitter accounts are posted instead of their websites. Hence, Twitter became the “de facto emergency alert service” of disaster agencies and governments (Leetaru, 2019). This was demonstrated in Tohoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake on 11 March 2011, the most powerful earthquake in Japan and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world with 900 aftershocks that triggered tsunami, nuclear emergencies and caused destruction of infrastructure and massive loss of lives (Doan et al., 2016). As Japan’s phone system was knocked down 30 minutes after the earthquake, Twitter became the “go-service” with 1,200 per minute tweets from Tokyo users and “shared the tsunami’s estimated arrival times on U.S. shores before an official government tsunami warning went into effect. The wave was expected to hit Hawaii” (Taylor, 2011, para. 4). The disaster had 1.5 million tweets in March to May 2011 and indicated that Twitter data can be used to determine the public’s needs and anxiety during disasters and a useful tool for early warning surveillance systems (Doan et al., 2016). The rapid development of technology and growth of social media users transformed Twitter as a formidable lifesaving emergency communication tool.

Twitter for Emergencies in 2007 to 2020

Twitter has unique characteristics that make it a crucial tool during disaster situations. Twitter has empowered and connected people as “its unique characteristics have enabled it to become more valuable than other social media to disaster management and research” (Dufty, 2016, p. 53). This has been seen in the past when Twitter has achieved participation of a huge number of people from bushfires, flash floods, cyclones, earthquakes and the recent Covid-19 pandemic. “Empirical studies have focused on the use of social media for different types of disasters four phases of disaster management” from preparedness, response, recovery and risk mitigation have been undertaken (Chatfield et al., 2014 p. 1948) and Twitter appears to be the most frequently used especially in extreme emergencies from 2007 to 2012 such as in 2007 USA Southern California Wildfire; 2009 – USA Red River Flooding and Oklahoma Fire; 2010 – Australia Ului Tropical Storm, Brisbane Storm, Haiti Earthquake and Indonesia Mount Merapi Eruption; 2011 – Australia Queensland Flood, New Zealand’s Christchurch Earthquake, Thailand Thai Flood, Eastern Japan Catastrophe and 2012 – Indonesia’s Sumatra Earthquake (Chatfield et al., 2014). In 2013, Twitter launched the Twitter Alerts system to enable organizations and public institutions to send emergency tweet messages and notifications in times of crisis and help users get accurate information from creditable organisations even when communication services are not accessible (Johnson, 2013). Furthermore, the rise of Hashtag# in Twitter, united people in the network and allows users to tweet around a single theme or issue. “Twitter’s ‘trending topic’ functionality promotes a shared use of certain hashtags for current events or contribution to ongoing conversations.” (Dufty, 2016, p. 51). From 2013 to 2020, Twitter users tweet using hashtags# for disasters such as in 2013 Philippines Typhoon Haiyan #haiyan; 2014 China Ludian Earthquake #ludian; 2015 Nepal Earthquake #nepalearthquake; 2016 Ecuador Earthquake #equadorearthquake; 2017 Dominica and Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria #hurricanemaria; 2018 Greece Fires #greecewildfire, USA California Fire #cafire, Indonesia Lombok Earthquake #lombokearthquake, Australian Drought #nswdrought; 2019 Amazon Fire #amazonfire, Australian Bushfires #australianbushfires (Gerova, 2019) and the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic #covid. The use of Twitter as a formidable social networking tool and participation of government agencies, authorities, communities and networks have been demonstrated during emergencies and disasters worldwide from 2007 to 2020.

Threats / Challenges to Twitter as Emergency Tool

However, malicious use of Twitter during emergency or disaster situations reduces its efficacy as a tool. Twitter is a powerful tool for detection, shared awareness and monitoring during emergencies but could degrade its purpose with the rise of fake news, misinformation and misuse. “One of the main challenges of emergency management lies in communicating risks to the public” (Panagiotopoulos, et. al., 2016, p. 86). This has been seen in the past when Twitter as a social media tool for emergencies since 2007 has generated huge number of tweets and retweets to warn people of dangers and saved lives. On the other hand, there are malicious individuals who create fake news or rumours and spread misinformation. For example, a far-right social media users banned in Twitter is Gab that posts homophobia, racism, misogyny and Hitler worship on their noticeboards (Hearse, 2019). Other manipulators are motivated by money, ideology and/or attention spread fake news like LibertyNewsWriters.com that use rumours and posts for financial benefits from advertising (Marwick & Lewis, 2017). As information can easily be accessed using Twitter, communities should be aware that not all posts are accurate. This was seen in the past like in the “London Riots in August 2011, Twitter users spread un-substantiated rumours about rioters breaking into a children’s hospital” and “authorities need to quickly correct such misinformation to keep the public well informed “ (McCreadie et al., 2015, p. 965). Furthermore, in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, 29% were fake content and over 6,000 malicious accounts were found on its hashtags (Gupta et. al., 2013). This led to concerned groups in developing a method to automate detection of fake news on Twitter using “CREDBANK, a crowdsourced dataset of accuracy for Twitter events and PHEME, a dataset of potential Twitter rumours and journalistic assessments of their accuracies” (Buntain et al., 2018). “Although the spread rumours may lead to risk perceptions, most emergency information on Twitter has been found to be of high quality and rumours are likely to be dismissed by other users” (Guardian, 2012, as cited in Panagiotopoulos et al., 2016, p. 89). However, Oxford University researchers recently studied a sample of Covid-19 social media posts from January to March, 2020 and found about 59% of the misinformation were in the “forms of reconfiguration, where existing and often true information is spun, twisted, recontextualised, or reworked” and “38% were completely fabricated” (Brennen et al., 2020). Hence, the use of automated tools to control the spread of misinformation, user awareness, vigilance of fact-checkers and users doing the right thing would minimise or avoid degrade on the use of Twitter for emergencies.

Twitter as a formidable lifesaving tool in emergencies

Ethical and responsible social media behaviour during disaster situations is vital for community recovery and empowerment. Twitter has been used “for crisis mapping for response, for understanding the sentiment of those affected, and in sharing real-time information between the community and emergency managers” (Dufty, 2016, p. 53). Researchers have identified ways for Twitter to be more resilient and effective for emergency management as a crisis-detector network and “automatic detection and evaluation of tweets may point to emergency before becoming a genuine crisis” (Dufty, 2016, p. 52). Undoubtedly, Twitter is a powerful tool in emergencies but how can social responsibility, ethical conduct and doing the right thing be incorporated in its use to make it formidable for lifesaving during emergencies? Twitter has been used since 2007 as a social media tool for emergencies but misuses have been detected in a number of studies. There are tools to detect misinformation that Twitter needs to investigate to ensure the accuracy of the tweet emergencies in critical situations (Buntain et. al., 2018). Studies have shown that social media has activated a “conscious” population of not just the wealthy and middle class with millions of users coming from different demographics (Chen, 2020). Everyone can tweet during emergencies, get help and inform others on possible dangers which empowers people for quick access of shared information. Making twitter a formidable lifesaving tool would entail users to do the right thing even during emergencies, not to spread rumours and fake news and be vigilant in tweeting and retweeting from credible sources to protect not only one’s life but other lives as well. People should be guided by Kantian ethics to “do the right thing” and not because of the end effects of their actions. Furthermore, Twitter during emergencies enable people to help each other for social good. Governments agencies, authorities, communities and networks should incorporate social responsibility, ethical conduct, and doing the right thing even during critical situations. In this context, social responsibility, ethical conduct and moral concern for the well-being of others can be incorporated to people when using Twitter during emergencies making it a formidable lifesaving social media tool.

Conclusion

Twitter is a formidable lifesaving social media tool that empowers communities and networks to raise awareness, communicate risks and mitigate impact when people shift towards social responsibility, ethical conduct and do the right thing during emergencies. Twitter has empowered people for more than a decade to share awareness, communicate risks and mitigate impact during emergencies. The achievements of using Twitter as a social media tool in emergencies such as participation of a huge number of people, shared awareness and rapidly connected people worldwide are remarkable. This has been demonstrated in the 2011 Tohoku Japan earthquake and the 2012 Hurricane Sandy when Twitter provided timely on-the-ground information that helped save lives. Furthermore, Twitter was used from the 2007 USA Southern California Wildfire to the recent Covid-19 pandemic where Twitter provided vital information used in emergency or disaster management. Although there are a number of malicious individuals who misused Twitter and tried to degrade it, “most emergency information on Twitter has been found to be of high quality” (Panagiotopoulus et al., 2016 p.89) and many still do the right thing, bound by ethical conduct and moral values with genuine concern for the well-being of others while Twitter uses automated tools and fact checkers to ensure the accuracy of shared information. Indeed, when people shift towards social responsibility, ethical conduct and act to do the right thing during emergencies, Twitter is a formidable lifesaving tool that can raise awareness, communicate risks and mitigate impact to empower and promote recovery of communities and networks.

References:

Brenne, J, Simon, F., Howard, P., Nielsen, K. (2020), Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation. Reuters Institute, University of Oxford. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/types-sources-and-claims-covid-19-misinformation

Buntain, C. & Golbeck, J. (2017). Automatically Identifying Fake News in Popular Twitter Threads. Arxiv.org, https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.01613

Chatfield, A., (2014). #Sandy Tweets: Citizens’ Co-Production of Time-Critical Information during an Unfolding Catastrophe. 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, U.S.A. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261961358_Sandy_Tweets_Citizens’_Co-Production_of_Time-Critical_Information_during_an_Unfolding_Catastrophe

Chen, J. (2020). Social media demographics to inform your brand’s strategy in 2020. Sproutsocial. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics

Dufty, N. (2016). Twitter turns ten: its use to date in disaster management. Australian Journal of Emergency Services. Volume 31, No. 2, April 2016, 50-54.  https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/ajem-apr-2016-twitter-turns-ten-its-use-to-date-in-disaster-management/

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Gupta, A., Kumaraguru, P., Lamba, H., Joshi, A. (2013). Faking Sandy: characterizing and identifying fake images on Twitter during Hurricane Sandy. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262395532_Faking_Sandy_characterizing_and_identifying_fake_images_on_Twitter_during_Hurricane_Sandy

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Panagiotopoulos P., Barnett, J., Steven, S., Bigdeli, A. (2016). Social media in emergency management: Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 111, October 2016, 86-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.010

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280829031_Using_Social_Media_to_Enhance_Emergency_Situation_Awareness_Extended_Abstract

18 replies on “Twitter for emergencies: A formidable lifesaving social media tool for communities and networks”

Hi Kathryn,

Isn’t it funny how since the development of social media every good Samaritan thinks they are the right person to deliver updates on serious events?

Your paper is interesting! It is good to see that people (and presumably government accounts also) are using social media for the greater good!

You speak a lot about intentional misinformation though have you thought about accidental? During the 2011 July Norway attacks there was a lot of Twitter use. While in the end it was used to provide information that benefitted the people in danger initially there were some problems. People were posting whispers they had heard and complaining about the lack of emergency response personal though they were mostly unaware that there were two attacks. First a bomb then a shooting.

The most beneficial thing Twitter provided in this instance was the notice for people not to call their children on the island as it could alert the shooter to their location. There was however much unintentional misinformation flying around from civilians. I think that I agree that government run or police run or other emergency service run accounts could provide accurate feedback though other than this it tends to be a game of chinese whispers as people share and as you have stated twist information in with each post or tweet.

If properly run by people in the know however I do think that social media is a great tool!

Hi Emily,

Thank you for your feedback and for sharing the 2011 July Norway attacks.

Twitter played a vital role in the 2011 July Norway attacks as you pointed out. I have read about a study on this which analysed the use of Twitter during the critical hours of the attacks. The study found that the “Norwegian authorities were almost completely absent on Twitter during the critical hours of the terrorist attacks, and that there was no coordination and synchronization of communication from the authorities that led to speculation and misinformation” (Ottosen & Steensen, 2018, p. 63). Unfortunately, 77 people died but it demonstrated that the people raised awareness and communicated real-time risks via Twitter that helped people as you mentioned. There were about 60k tweets which authorities could have coordinated to avoid the misinformation.

I focused on the intentional misinformation (where truth is reconfigured, twisted, spun or reworked and fabricated) as this poses more threats / challenges to Twitter and which fact-checkers analysed from research studies that may not be particular of “accidental tweet” (tweet to an account that was accidentally sent to another account or tweet not meant to be sent). However, I just learned that Twitter is now working on new ways to find tweets that are “misinformative (inaccurate, but not necessarily ill-intended) [that you may be referring to] and disinformative (intentionally misleading)” (Enos, 2020, para. 3) and hopefully more studies will be done about this.

I agree that social media such as Twitter is a great tool for emergencies when properly used and run by people which you mentioned or when people shift towards social responsibility, ethical conduct and do the right thing during emergencies as I discussed on my paper. I have also acknowledged the remarkable achievements of Twitter in my paper since the 2007 disasters and emergencies.

Thanks again.

Hey Kathryn!
I like your topic – it’s well thought out and unique.
I enjoyed that you explored different avenues relating to your thesis. Good use of topic sentences! It was really informative to read, helping me to discover all these different things pertaining to the use of Twitter.
It was interesting to see the examples of misinformation that you provided. It really is horrible to think people go out there trying to actively panic the public.
I definitely agree that they should hire more people to police the app – especially after reading yours and Lachlan’s paper in this conference.
Have you personally experienced Twitter yourself? As in are you a frequent user to gain knowledge from the app?

Hi Kathryn

Thanks for your paper, I enjoyed reading it! Twitter is probably one of the fastest sources of information when it comes to emergencies. I know when I’ve felt a couple of small earthquakes here in Adelaide, it’s such a bizarre thing to experience, so you only need to go onto Twitter and check the trending feeds and a few seconds later you’ll soon know if anyone else is asking who else felt a tremor!

Looking out for fake news is especially important on Twitter, as people can post Tweets about ANYTHING, and with a powerful enough Tweet that catches people’s attention, get them all retweeting it, pretty soon it will spread and everyone will think it’s true, then it starts appearing on Facebook, etc… this has happened with celebrity deaths as well!:

Harris, E. (2010, December 29). BRIEF: Celebrity death hoaxes on twitter. McClatchy – Tribune Business News. https://search-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/821861186?accountid=10382

Hi Indre,

Thank you for your feedback and I am glad you enjoyed reading my paper!

I agree that Twitter is one of the fastest sources of information for emergencies as it has the capacity to broadcast real-time information frequently and enable quick access of tweets. Thanks for sharing your Twitter experience during the Adelaide earthquakes proving that people quickly turn to Twitter for information or updates through tweets and retweets.

As you pointed out, Twitter users can post any tweets that quickly spread to huge number of people and social networks as seen in your example of “Celebrity death hoaxes on Twitter” despite Twitter rules and policies on its use. Consequently, Twitter removes or attaches warnings to control the spread of “false” tweets although some may still be up. Recently, Twitter is testing new ways to not only crack down “fake news” but to correct them (Enos, 2020) which is a good step. Hopefully, users would also do their part in using Twitter with social responsibility, ethical conduct and do the right thing especially during emergencies as discussed in my paper.

Thanks again.

Hi Anne-Marie,

Thank you for your feedback and I am glad that you like my topic.

I have interest in social media for social good so I selected this topic which I hope will be helpful in some ways. I had great feedback from Tarsh who reviewed my paper and incorporated her suggestions so special thanks to her, too.

I also learned most of the Twitter misinformation, emergencies and disaster details when I was doing the research and writing the paper. It is sad to know that some malicious individuals could misuse Twitter during emergencies.

It is good that there are many concerned groups and fact-checkers now. Also, I just read that Twitter is now testing new ways to fight the misinformation (Enos, 2020) and hopefully find a good solution soon to ensure accuracy of shared information especially during emergencies.

I only started using Twitter in 2016 and used this mostly for tweeting / retweeting trending news and issues but I have not been in emergencies yet to use Twitter.

Thanks again.

Hi Kathryn, very great paper. Whenever there is a debate around the goods and evils of social media, it seems the focus is on how it affects the quality of life of it’s users; its often overlooked how they can save lives as you demonstrate in your paper. Not that quality of life is not an important issue but keeping people alive is undoubtably much more important, I feel this shows the goods outweigh the evils. I believe Facebook has similar life saving capabilities to Twitter, a few years ago while on holidays in far north Queensland Facebook sent me a notification asking if I wanted to let my Facebook friends know that I was safe from a social disruption in Pakistan, the spirit of trying to help is there but clearly this demonstrates it needs some work. I don’t use Twitter but I understand they have implemented verified profiles, do you think we could find a way to use this to filter out the trolls and fake news during times of crisis? What problems might this bring? – James

Hi James,

Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your Facebook experience.

I am glad that you pointed out that social media can save lives as discussed in my paper. The “good” outweighs the “evil” as you mentioned especially if the efficacy of the social media tools are upheld when users “do the right thing” while social media platforms operate with social responsibility to address the growing spread of fake news and misinformation.

If Twitter verifies all profiles, this may be a good way to filter fake news to avoid misinformation as users would be more responsible and accountable for their tweets. Unfortunately, verified profiles on Twitter are mostly from popular or public figures as Twitter factors “public interest” when they choose to verify the account. Politicians and popular celebrities are also sources of misinformation now. Furthermore, some users can still create fake accounts and spread misinformation despite Twitter Rules. Recently, Twitter “prioritises blue-check verification mark for “mobilising the badge system” particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic for “credible updates” (Iris, 2020).

Detecting fake news has been a challenge not only to Twitter but to other social media platforms. With user profiles which is a good point that you raised, there is a study I just read indicates “detecting fake news only from content is generally not satisfactory and it is suggested to incorporate user social engagements as auxiliary information to improve fake news detection… necessitates an in-depth understanding of the correlation between user profiles on social media and fake news” (Shui et al., 2018). Further research on this would help to improve tools to automatically detect “fake news” and misinformation in social media.

Thanks again.

Hi Kathryn,

I found your paper to be very interesting, thank you! I note that a lot of the comments you made on my paper around fact checking and automated tools to stop the spread of misinformation also apply to your argument. I’m interested to learn more about CREDBANK and PHEME, so will do my own research offline. Thanks for mentioning those names though, it’s a good lead for me as misinformation is a strong area of interest for me.

I think you’re right when you say that “Ethical and responsible social media behaviour during disaster situations is vital for community recovery and empowerment” (para. 5). You go on to say that “Making twitter a formidable lifesaving tool would entail users to do the right thing even during emergencies, not to spread rumours and fake news and be vigilant in tweeting and retweeting from credible sources to protect not only one’s life but other lives as well” (para. 5). How do you think we can best educate users to know what the ‘right thing’ is to do? Is this something that needs to start as early as possible, as part of the education system, or is it the responsibility of governments (or Twitter) to set out guidelines and regulations?

Your paper really demonstrates the important role that Twitter plays during emergencies. It will be interesting to see how the issues you have raised around misinformation and disinformation play out in the years to come.

Thanks again,
Anna

Hi Anna,

Thank you for your great feedback and your questions below, much appreciated.

“How do you think we can best educate users to know what the ‘right thing’ is to do? Is this something that needs to start as early as possible, as part of the education system, or is it the responsibility of governments (or Twitter) to set out guidelines and regulations?”

I think there is no simple answer to your first question. If there is one, our world would be a better place. I studied the Kantian ethics in one my IT courses with the basic teaching that “good will is doing good without qualification” or “doing the right thing and not because of the end effects of the action”. Ideally, it would be good that this basic teaching, ethical conduct, social responsibility and compassion are taught early as part of our education system. This would be a good foundation of universal values for everyone.

I think Twitter has social responsibility to ensure that users conform with the Twitter Rules and act to ensure that fake news and misinformation are fully addressed to resolve the issue. For example, Twitter can post Twitter Rules and user to acknowledge / read before creating an account to inform users of their rules. Twitter can also verify profiles and not factor “public interest” when they choose to verify the account of a new user which ensures that all profiles are verified. This may help users to be more socially responsible, accountable and be critical thinkers of tweets and retweets. Twitter is now looking into finding a solution to stop misinformation (Enos, 2020) which is a good step.

Likewise, governments also have the responsibility to protect their citizens. I think they need to set specific guidelines and regulations, closely regulate social media platforms and impose penalties, if necessary. In one of the studies on social media, Dr Hall states that governments should pressure social media companies to be transparent and ensure that they “enrich” public debate and not “undermine” it (Hall, 2017).

Furthermore, social media platforms in many countries are still self-regulating. Some countries such as UK, EU, Germany and Australia have the following regulations as reported by BBC news in 12 February 2020:
• UK – Government is to outline new powers for the media regulator Ofcom to police social media.
• EU – Social media platforms face fines, if they do not delete extremist content within an hour.
• Germany – NetzDG Law in 2018 social media platforms with 2 million German users have to review and remove illegal content within 24 hours or face fines of up to €50m (£42m).
• Australia – Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in April 2019 introducing criminal penalties for social media companies, possible jail sentences for tech executives for up to three years and financial penalties worth up to
10% of a company’s global turnover (Reality Check Team – BBC News, 2020).

Hopefully, future research studies would look into this further to fully address the issue on fake news and misinformation in social media.

Thanks again.

Hi Kathryn,

I enjoyed reading your answers to Anna in relation to SNS (particularly Twitter) educating users on what is the ‘right’ thing to do and the benefits for them if they choose to abide by those rules and suggestions.

I also particularly like your response to Anna that states: “In one of the studies on social media, Dr Hall states that governments should pressure social media companies to be transparent and ensure that they “enrich” public debate and not “undermine” it” (Hall, 2017). I agree that governments need more policy (and action) around social media and as you say, they need to follow through and impose penalties so that their policy is not seen as ‘hollow’. There will always be members of the public who ignore the laws, but as we’ve seen with things like drink driving and the law enforcement efforts around that in the past, many people will think first before they act when there are very visible penalties involved. Of course the challenge for government and law enforcers is having the resources to enforce and police those policies.

Congratulations on a great paper. I found it a very interesting read because it was closely related to my own paper on the benefits of social media during an epidemic.

Leanne.

Hi Leanne,

Thank you for your feedback and for reading the responses to my paper, much appreciated.

I am glad that you like my responses to Anna’s questions. Thanks also for your paper as you pointed out that critical thinking of users is also needed to mitigate misinformation in social media which I agree per my feedback to your paper. In addition, critical thinking is needed to be able to have the skill now to detect misinformation as I think “appearance-reality distinction” may be a contributing factor to the misinformation issue on social media today. “What appears may not be the real thing” occurs as information can now be easily manipulated in the digital age by some malicious individuals. Also, there may be some users who just tweet or retweet from sources that appears to be “credible” such as popular celebrities, politicians or public figures.

Hopefully, further studies on this would be done in the future to address the growing fake news and misinformation in social media especially during emergencies and epidemics where lives are at stake as discussed in our papers.

Thanks again.

Hi Kathryn,

Thanks for such a detailed reply! You’ve given me some good resources to look into and lots more to think about. There is no doubt that the issues we are facing are incredibly complex. Education of individual users from an early age and regulation of social media platforms by governments will be key moving forward.

I have another country to add to your list! Just this week, France has passed legislation requiring social media platforms to take down hateful content within 24 hours. You can read about that here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-threatens-big-fines-for-social-media-with-hate-speech-law-11589398472

Thanks again for such a thoughtful response,
Anna

Hi Anna,

Thank you for sharing the information that France has also passed legislation for social media platforms to take down hateful content within 24 hours as you pointed out.

Thanks again.

Hello Kathryn, I really enjoyed reading your paper and must admit, the title and topic both caught my eye and piqued my interest. After doing some reading on the subject and thinking on it for a time it does make a lot of sense (due to its affordances) that Twitter would be a go to platform for such scenarios where speed is of the essence. This appears to have been studied for quite some time, as some digging turned up a fair number of papers around many of the subjects you touched upon (including technical descriptions of information credibilty systems https://link-springer-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-30428-6 ). I found a 2009 paper (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215500880_Twitter_Adoption_and_Use_in_Mass_Convergence_and_Emergency_Events/link/0912f5112a31de0455000000/download) that includes Twitter data from two 2008 hurricanes in the US and interestingly, they found data to suggest that “ those new Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a non-routine event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology”. On top of the emergency and crisis use-cases, it also seems to be increasingly adopted by public services in general as a part of their communications strategies. I found a 2019 study (https://www-tandfonline-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/10439463.2019.1589470?needAccess=true) on the Kenyan police force’s intiative focussing on Twitter in an attempt to increase transparency and improve public relations, with the choice of Twitter being made due to the open nature (non-reciprocity) of the feeds. Did your investigations lead you to any conclusions as to Twitter’s ability to improve/strengthen communities in this regard? There is a lot of interesting work happening in this area and am glad you chose to write on the subject. Thank you for your enlightening contribution to the conference.
Talep

Hi Talep,

Thank you for your feedback and for sharing other studies about my paper, much appreciated.

Twitter has been used for emergencies since 2007 and a number of research studies have been published including the interesting paper that you shared that focused on the “methods for the information credibility in emergency situation on Twitter” (Xia et al., 2012) which I just read.

It is remarkable that “Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a non-routine event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology” (Hughes & Pullen, 2009) as you pointed out.

The article you shared about the Kenya National Police Service (NPS) on social media is interesting. The leaks of sensitive information online by NPS officers resulted in prohibiting individual officers to use social media which led to centralised online presence contrary to their decentralised goal (Dwyer, 2019). Further studies need to be performed on this to determine the factors that may cause the leaks of information including improving the operations or procedures of users, in this case the NPS. Twitter provides guidelines for law enforcement which may be helpful for police officers engaging with the public during emergencies.

Thanks again.

Hi Kathryn,

Great paper, I really enjoyed reading it!

I have often thought about the eradication of ‘slow news’ due to social media sites such as Twitter and even Facebook, everything being put online as it happens these days. But I never really thought about Twitter helping Governments and other agencies on how they should react during an emergency or a disaster, it’s the best primary resource they can use when deciding on how to help.
Do you think the potential for fake news and fake accounts during times like this is a risk worth taking for the good that Twitter can do during these times?

Hi Georgia,

Thank you for your feedback and I am glad that you enjoyed reading my paper!

It is remarkable how we rely on social media such as Twitter and Facebook for news as you pointed out. Some sensational news quickly become viral online ahead of the mainstream media.

“Do you think the potential for fake news and fake accounts during times like this is a risk worth taking for the good that Twitter can do during these times”?

In response to your question above, I think during times like this, using Twitter is a lifesaving tool and worth the risks as fake news and misinformation at this stage can still be controlled. Social media platforms need to step up and operate with social responsibility, use automated tools and vigilant fact-checkers to detect and remove quickly fake news and fake accounts and verify user accounts. Users should also do their part and “do the right thing”, be critical thinkers and cautious of tweeting and retweeting from “credible” sources. Governments also need to protect their citizens and implement regulations on social media platforms as seen in some countries such as UK, EU, Germany, France and Australia. Twitter has proven its efficacy in most emergencies from 2007 – 2020 and have responded to remove false news or misinformation and is now looking into finding a solution to stop misinformation (Enos, 2020) which is a good step. Hopefully, these actions would soon mitigate the spread of fake news and misinformation especially during emergencies.

Thanks again.

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