Social Media Helped Boston Bombing Response

As you may already know there was a tragedy that occurred earlier this month. There was a Boston Marathon bombing that injured over 100 people and killed 3. There was a chaos of people and cell phones weren’t working. People were said to have rushed home to post a Facebook status informing their family and friends that they were OK and there phone was down.

A friend of a victim stated,

I have been following my friend's Facebook [account] who is near the scene and she is updating everyone before it even gets to the news.

As word spread of the blasts on Monday morning, social media seemed to have shaped every aspect of the response from runners giving updates of the race-turned-nightmare on Facebook to authorities using Twitter to give constant updates. Runners were reporting about the incident prior to the news channels releasing any new information. Terrorism experts said that social media helped in Boston to determine their steps after hearing about the explosions.

Bill Braniff, Executive Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism said

Authorities have recognized that one of the first places people go in events like this is to social media, to see what the crowd is saying about what to do next.

Before Authorities took their steps, they looked to Twitter to search for corroborating information in order to take a corrective action.

Above photo is a screenshot of a Tweet that was sent from the Boston Police Dept. in search for the suspect.

 

It’s amazing how people learned information about the blasts on social media before hearing it on any traditional news outlets. The event became a trending topic on twitter, #BostonMarathon. The information was spreading beyond the affected area and became a trending hashtag within the online community that expanded across national borders. There is a greater sense of unity. Its unfortunate that days like this, brings us together.

Overall, social media is a tremendous help for investigators throughout their evaluation process. Photos and statuses that are posted can be used to help identify the perpetrators of the attack. Just like Sandy, people were documenting the aftermath in posts and pictures of the events.