Assembling an angry mob used to be a strenuous ordeal. Grab your pitchfork, light your kerosene-dipped torch, and then walk to each house in the hope that others will join you. Nowadays, social media makes the gathering process far more convenient. Just send a public message or text your friends, ask them to relay that message to off of their friends, and so on. The recent rioting in England exemplifies how effective, and dangerous this contemporary system is.
In an effort to combat these riots, the British police have started monitoring social networking sites and confiscated mobile phones. They’re looking for messages or posts planning suspicious protests. If the police catch wind of any upcoming event, they can intervene at the required location before any rioting occurs.
The British government has even considered extreme moves, like shutting down social media sites completely. Prime Minister David Cameron stated, “we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
Since social media has become the clear target of the British government and Police, Chitika Insights investigated any possibility of a traffic surge to see if there’s any weight behind Cameron’s statements.
Insights analyzed Facebook and Twitter traffic volume in London dating back to before the riots. Right off the bat, Facebook and Twitter traffic dropped by roughly 250% between the 4th and 5th of August. This is interesting because it dropped on the date of Mark Duggan’s death, the controversy that sparked protest in the first place.
Between the 5th and 9th of August, there was a 750% increase in Twitter traffic. Facebook’s traffic shot up by over 200% between the 5th and the 7th. The worst rioting occurred between the 6th and 10th of August, so there’s a correlation with the traffic increase on both sites.
After the major rise in social media traffic, Facebook and Twitter decreased again, fluctuating as it fell. Facebook traffic volume dropped 100% after August 7th. Twitter’s traffic volume didn’t drop until the 9th, but fell by over 500% over a two day period. Coincidentally, traffic for both sites fell around the same time the British police announced that they would start monitoring Facebook and Twitter more closely.
Though it’s difficult to diagnose exact reasons for these traffic trends (as they would be unsubstantiated) we can state one thing with absolute certainty. That is: social media has dramatically enhanced the speed and ease of communication in our society. There’s no other site where you can instantaneously share and keep up with current issues, organize group events, see what’s happening in our immediate area, market products, and entertain ourselves. Oh yeah, social media is also pretty good for staying in touch with people.
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