#Westgate Tweets: A Detailed Study of Information Forensics

Citation:

Brittany Card, Justine MacKinnon, and Patrick Meier. 11/2013. #Westgate Tweets: A Detailed Study of Information Forensics.
westgate-tweets.pdf397 KB

Abstract:

Al Shabaab's horrific attack of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi generated over 730,000 tweets during the four-day siege in Spetember 2013. The purpose of this study is to analyze the authors, content and frequency of these tweets in the hour leading up to the attacks and during the two hours after the onslaught began. The Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) partnered with GNIP to collect the 730,000+ tweets within hours of the attack unfolding. QCRI Research Assistants Ms. Brittany Card and Ms. Justine MacKinnon carried out the subsequent categorization and analysis of tweets under the guidance of QCRI's Director of Social Innovation, Dr. Patrick Meier.