funsec mailing list archives
Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform
From: Imri Goldberg <lorgandon () gmail com>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:58:25 +0300
On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:21 AM, Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster () gmail com>wrote:
And despite all the recent Twitter-enthusiasm about this platform's unique power to alert millions of people in decentralized and previously unavailable ways, there are quite a few reasons to be concerned about Twitter's role in facilitating an unnecessary global panic about swine flu. First of all, I should point out from the very outset that anyone trying to make sense of how Twitter's “global brain” has reacted to the prospect of the swine flu pandemic is likely to get disappointed. The “swine flu” meme has so far that misinformed and panicking people armed with a platform to broadcast their fears are likely to produce only more fear, misinformation and panic.
I actually felt something similar yesterday. Yesterday's evening, at least 7 ambulances and a police car passed on the road with sirens on. There were probably more, but I didn't start counting right off. Since the last time I saw five ambulances in a row, was right after a suicide bombing a few years ago, I immediately thought that there has been another terror attack. I checked the news websites, and saw nothing about it. I decided to write on twitter (which also updates my facebook, and a small box on my blog. I know no one probably reads either, but still :). Then I thought that if I wrote that I thought it was a terror attack, I could start a panic. So I wrote that I saw the ambulances, without trying to analyze what happened. It turned out to be a bus accident, with many people wounded. -Imri -- Imri Goldberg -------------------------------------- www.algorithm.co.il/blogs/ -------------------------------------- -- insert signature here ----
_______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Paul Ferguson (Apr 26)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Tomas L. Byrnes (Apr 26)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Paul Ferguson (Apr 26)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Gadi Evron (Apr 26)
- Message not available
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Tomas L. Byrnes (Apr 27)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Tomas L. Byrnes (Apr 26)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Imri Goldberg (Apr 26)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Dragos Ruiu (Apr 27)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Paul Ferguson (Apr 27)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Dragos Ruiu (Apr 27)
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform quispiam lepidus (Apr 27)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Swine flu: Twitter's power to misinform Robert Slade (Apr 27)