![\"Social](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Social-media-map-1024x651.png\" "\\"Social")
Social media map<\/p><\/div>\n
Social media growth<\/strong><\/p>\n The paper further highlights the rapid growth of Facebook, which has reached more than one billion active users in less than a decade of existence – while Twitter has attracted over 500 million active users in seven years. Sina-Weibo, China\u2019s dominant micro-blogging platform, passed 400 million active accounts in summer 2012.<\/p>\n The WEF also points out that every minute, 48 hours\u2019 worth of content is uploaded to YouTube. \u201cThe world of social media is multicultural and young,” the WEF noted.<\/p>\n Analysis of Twitter messages and networks has successfully predicted election results, movie box office success and consumer reactions to specific brands, among other things, the WEF said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, some individuals and organizations have suffered losses due to the capacity for information to spread virally and globally through social media,\u201d the WEF said.<\/p>\n The forum believes that what unites individucals and organizations is that hyperconnectivity amplified their impacts to a degree that would have been unthinkable in a pre-Internet age.<\/p>\n The WEF stresses that digital wildfires are most dangerous in situations of high tension, when false information or inaccurately presented imagery can cause damage before it is possible to propagate accurate information.<\/p>\n The other dangerous situation is when information circulates within a bubble of likeminded people who may be resistant to attempts to correct it, it adds.<\/p>\n \u201cCases in which false information feeds into an existing worldview, making it harder to dislodge, are far from unimaginable. This may be more of a problem with social networks where information is less publicly visible, for example, through friend networks on Facebook or more \u201copaque\u201d social networks such as e-mail or text messaging,” the WEF said.<\/p>\n Digital wildfires<\/p><\/div>\n Digital wildfire dangers<\/strong><\/p>\n While it is certainly possible for a digital wildfire to start accidentally, it is also possible for misinformation to be deliberately propagated by those who stand to reap some kind of benefit.<\/p>\n And according to the WEF, more worrying for businesses may be misinformation that circulates at a time when markets are already anticipating an important announcement.<\/p>\n On 18 October 2012, NASDAQ halted trading on Google shares as a leaked earnings report (coupled with weak results it entailed) triggered a US$ 22 billion plunge in Google\u2019s market capitalization.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, the information was from a credible source, but it demonstrates impacts that could also be achieved by unfortunately timed misinformation or rumours,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n “It is not always easy to trace the source of a digital wildfire. It would be possible for careful cyber attackers to cover their tracks, raising the possibility of an organisation or country being falsely blamed for propagating inaccurate or provocative information.”<\/p>\n “Depending on existing tensions, the consequences of the false attribution could be exponentially worse than if no attribution had been made,” the WEF said.<\/p>\n Solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n The WEF argues that legal restrictions on online anonymity and freedom of speech are a possible route to preventing such online harms, but this may also have undesirable consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, generators and consumers of social media will need to evolve an ethos of responsibility and healthy\u00a0scepticism,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s biggest Twitter twits<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Facebook privacy settlement gets the nod<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n![\"Digital](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Digital-wildfires.png\" "\\"Digital")
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