The use of social media in the Boston Attack

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The U.S. has experienced another terrorist attack on its soil at the peak of the International Marathon held in the city of Boston. The event was attended by over 27,000 runners from many countries around the world, hundreds of thousands of spectators and tens of thousands of security personnel who were to secure the event. Four hours and nine minutes into the race the first blast occurred near the finish line, and shortly afterwards the second explosion occurred about a hundred and fifty meters away. The blast killed three people, one of them a boy of eight years old, and wounded 144. Out of these 17 were critically wounded and 23 were in serious condition.

Emergency response agencies were very fast but Tweeting on Twitter was even faster. Within moments of the explosion Twitter was filled with reports and pictures (some of which were very difficult to view) of the area and of the injured.

U.S. residents are experienced and use social networks in emergency situations on a regular basis. Their main experience comes from natural disasters in the form of hurricanes and tornadoes hitting the United States each year. Every Friday emergency experts gather for an online chat on Twitter about these issues just trying to think together as to how to solve problems as well as develop new directions.

More recently, when hurricane ‘Sandy’ hit the country’s East coast the storm left a path of very heavy destruction. The most important lesson Americans learned from ‘Sandy’ was that social media is the most important tool for communication in emergency situations. Some experts have divided the time frame to ‘before’ Sandy and ‘after’ Sandy in terms of communication using social media in emergencies.

When natural disasters occur, U.S. agencies react according to precise protocols with each agency managing its own role and place. With regard to Terrorism, the situation is somewhat different. First, because of the nature of the event the execution of an attack on U.S. soil offers no warning, as opposed to a hurricane which does offer a warning and provides time to prepare.   Secondly, the response to an unprovoked attack on Americans awakens a sense of patriotism resulting in a show of unity and strength.

During the first half hour after the attack, thousands of Tweets from all over the U.S. (and the world) were published with prayers, condolences and expressed solidarity with the victims of the attack. Many pictures were posted showing the tremendous help first responders gave to the injured at the scene. Many Tweets mentioned the help provided by the runners themselves who helped to treat and evacuate the wounded to hospitals. Physicians and surgeons who participated in the marathon gave first aid treatment to the wounded until medical teams arrived. Videos taken by Marathon viewers documented the moments of the explosions and were released not too many minutes later across social media.

Twitter, in this event, was to provide real-time news and become a valuable source for the news channels themselves relying on the information for their news feeds. However, unlike other emergency events a phenomenon occurred this time which consisted of widely spread rumors that affected the entire system. Studies have shown that rumors started during emergencies tend to be corrected quickly by the general public, but in this case many rumors spread quickly throughout the network as well as in the news channels which published them without any verification. Information was widely distributed concerning additional bombs that hadn’t exploded or about doctors who found that pellets and metal shards from the IED’s wounded many, as well as that suspects were being held by the police. The New-York Post website even reported that the real death toll stood at 12, and that a wounded suspect was being held under guard at a hospital.

In addition, some argued that it was a North Korean attack coinciding with the occasion of the birthday of the founder of that nation. But the rumor that had the biggest impact was probably the one that security authorities decided to disable all cellular communications in the city of Boston, in order to avoid the activation of additional bombs.

The Mobile phone, especially the Smartphone, has become a very important tool for the processing of media in times of emergency, as well as providing information search capabilities and the distribution of information. Boston carriers reported a particularly high load on the communications networks. One of the first things people wanted to do was to notify family and friends they were fine, while at the same time family members tried to locate their relatives and friends who participated in the marathon as runners or members of the audience. If such a wide cellular service shutdown had occurred one cannot even begin to imagine or describe the mayhem that would take place across the city when no one could get in touch with anyone. This rumor began following a report in the dignified AP network and was refuted only after about an hour and a half when various websites began publishing denials.

At the same time all this took place, another Twitter arena was conducted where it was possible to get reliable information and great assistance. As noted, in the U.S. there are many trained emergency officials who were trying to publish vital information and give people a chance to connect with each other. The American Red Cross released the ‘Safe and Well’ tools so on one hand where people could register themselves as ‘okay’ and on the other would allow families and friends to find their loved ones. Google also released the ‘Person finder’, not long after the attack that allowed for the posting of information about people and assisted those looking for someone.

Boston police made ​​clever use of Twitter, mainly because they understood that the public held a lot of information that could help investigate the attack. Police issued two public information requests through Twitter, the first one requesting videos of the finish line and the other was a request for information and tips from the field for the general public in the city.

After rumors spread about a suspect in police custody, it was decided to release a denial of the rumor. More than that, the police asked the public to continue to distribute their information.

One of the challenges in an emergency situation is to find required emergency information quickly and easily. In events like hurricanes, information could be prepared ahead of time. Authorities responsible for emergencies also distribute tags (hashtags) to use when searching for information or in the publication of information. But in the event of a sudden emergency there is no time for early preparations or to prepare tags and to publish them to the public. Tags are generated in real time and converge slowly to known tags. In Boston there were 10 different tags running at the same time, which made it difficult to create dialogue and find information.

The information overload surrounding the Boston attack site was huge, and Twitter was soon flooded with tens of thousands of Tweets that emergency authorities and the people themselves, had to go through in order to gather relevant information. The conduct of emergency forces around the attack area and the city created a sense of panic and stress, causing a feeling of uncertainty which increased the pressure on the social media. The closure of airspace over the attack zones, the increase of security and strict inspection in the Boston metro system, removal of travelers from the White House vicinity as well as the closure of the airports did not contribute to the sense of security of the residents.

Emergency authorities in Israel have only recently begun to take their first steps in using Facebook in times of emergency. Facebook is a communication tool that functions as a closed tool and makes it difficult to search, while Twitter is a development tool that allows search and follow more easily as well as the tracking of topics of conversation. Emergency authorities in Israel should begin preparing themselves in advance for the intelligent use of Facebook and Twitter. Burying ones head in the sand when it comes to the smart use of social media is stupid. Use of social media can save lives in real time as we see every time a catastrophic event occurs in the U.S. whether it be a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

By Tomer Simon, MPH
Disaster and emergency preparedness expert
The Israeli website for disaster and emergency preparedness