Social Media in the Wake of Disaster

Social media sites became an unexpected lifeline for many when mobile phone networks and some telephone landlines collapsed in the hours following the devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011. Twitter and Facebook quickly became the easiest and most reliable way of keeping in touch with relatives, as well as providing emergency numbers and information to those in stricken areas.

Many mobile phone networks are unable to cope in the immediate aftermath of a crisis when hundreds of thousands of customers try to make a call or send a text at the same time. In Japan, mobile carriers were limiting voice calls on congested networks to cope with the load, with NTT DoCoMo restricting up to 80% of voice calls, especially in Tokyo. Softbank and Au, rival phone companies, were also affected, with Tokyo residents unable to send text messages to friends and relatives. As a result, VOIP technology from Skype presented an efficient working alternative.

Within one hour of the tragedy, tweets from Tokyo were capping at 1200/minute according to data from Tweet-o-Meter. Even the US State Department took part in the social storm, turning to Twitter to publish emergency numbers and information on how Japanese residents in America could contact families back home. Relief organizations also provided resources for non-Japanese speakers left homeless to find shelter.