The shocking attacks last year presented the citizens of Paris with a challenge and it tested the resilience and expertise of the emergency services. But what role did social media have to play during and after the catastrophic events? In this session we will hear from eye-witnesses and social media experts on the assessment of social media and its future within the emergency management domain.

1. 06/04/2016
Presenter
Demetrios PYRROS
President
EENA
Use of social media during
Paris attacks
EENA Conference 2016 – Plenary Session

2. Use of social media during Paris attacks
List of speakers
Chair: Demetrios Pyrros, President, EENA
➢ Benjamin Cazenoves, Citizen, Survivor from the attack at
Bataclan concert hall;
➢ Caroline Langlade, Citizen, Survivor from the attack at Bataclan
concert hall and Vice-President of the “Life for Paris” association;
➢ Benoît Tabaka, Citizen, Witness of the attack at Bataclan concert
hall;
➢ Sylvain Lapoix, Citizen, Creator of the #porteouverte hashtag;
➢ Tom Tarantino, Public Policy Manager, Twitter;
➢ Alexandre Alaphilippe, Social Media expert;
➢ Iratxe Gomez, Virtual Operations Support Team (VOST) expert,
co-Chair, EENA Operations Committee.
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3. Use of social media during Paris attacks
“ I am still at the Bataclan. 1st floor. Severely injured!
Launch the assault as quick as possible. There are
survivors inside. They kill everyone. One by one. 1st
floor quickly !!!”
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4. Use of social media during Paris attacks 4

5. Use of social media during Paris attacks 5
“Many gunshots being fired at the
Bataclan.”

6. Use of social media during Paris attacks 6
“Those who can open their doors, geolocalise your
tweets + #PorteOuverte (open door) to indicate the
safe places. #shooting #Paris”
➢ The #PorteOuverte hashtag was used more than
200,000 times in two hours.

7. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Twitter and the Paris/Brussels attacks
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Twitter’s Tools
1. Retweets from Twitter Accounts
2. Ads for Good (NGO only)
3. Tweets from VIPs
4. Twitter Prompts
5. Donate Now Button
6. Moments/Vine/Periscope
7. Twitter Data

8. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Twitter and the Paris/Brussels attacks
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@PrefPolice
24 Hour Prompt:
4 Platforms in French
2.6M Impressions
14% Click Through Rate
Followers:
35,838 - Before Prompt
+144,814 - During Prompt
240K - Followers Today
@CrisisCenterBE
6 Day Prompt:
4 Platforms in French,
English, and Dutch
400K+ Impressions
13% Click Through Rate
Followers:
46,057 - Before Prompt
+45,041 - During Prompt
92.4 - Followers Today

9. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Use of social media by emergency services
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10. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Social Media and Paris attacks
➢ 2 important phases :
▪ Information phase : people want to know what is happening, looking for
reliable sources
▪ Organisation phase : people want to gather to provide some help
➢ 3 uses of social media in emergency situations:
1. Quickly give safety instructions and help to follow the good stakeholders:
1. Spread good and fact-checked information to avoid rumours
2. Coordinate local actions and crowd-seed information through volunteers
(like VISOV)
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"[#rumours] Do not pass on false information. Only follow the
official accounts @Place_Beauveau @prefpolice @Pnationale"

11. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Virtual Operations Support Teams
➢ What are VOST teams?
o Teams of trusted agents who lend support on-line
and via social media to those who may otherwise
be overwhelmed by the volume of information
generated during emergency or crisis situations;
o Formed mostly by experts in public safety,
communications and IT, and supported by an
expanding network of VOST influencers;
o Backed by international network in Europe, the
Americas and Oceania.
➢ How can they help?
o They do Civil protection on-line and are activated
to perform specific functions in support of affected
organisations & jurisdictions.
➢How do they work?
o Establishing formal agreements with Emergency
Services and Public Authorities at different levels.
o Self-activated or activated upon demand, activities
include:
▪ Social Media Analysis for collection and
filtering of information to be relayed to
authorities in a structured way;
▪ Detect and fight hoaxes;
▪ Provide useful and educated advice, etc.
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12. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Traditional media during Paris attacks
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13. Use of social media during Paris attacks 13

14. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Social media during Paris attacks
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15. Use of social media during Paris attacks
Thank you for your attention!
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