It is official: Osama bin Laden in dead and the USA is in possession of his body. But what is even more interesting is the role that social media played in unveiling the death of Bin Laden. Let’s have a look.
It all started with tweets from Sohaib Athar who livetweeted the Osama raid. You can see his tweets here
The news broke on Twitter even before the announcement from the White House. Keith Urbahn, chief of staff for the office of the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, is the first man who announced the death of Osama bin Laden.
The tweet generated so many retweets and replies that Keith Urbahn had to repost a tweet asking people to wait for the President’s official speech.
Facebook
The announcement from the White House was livestreamed on Facebook 90 minutes after speculations started on Twitter.
Shortly after the official announcement, the Facebook page “Osama Bin Laden is DEAD” went viral. At this hour, it has 270,469 fans.
Foursquare
According to a report from Mashable, Foursquare users also contributed to the buzz by checking in to a Post-Bin Laden world. A search in New York had the following check ins:
The phenomenon seems to be global, as my search in London had similar results this morning.
Google Maps
After the announcement, Google Maps users added reviews to the “venue” called Osama bin Laden’s Compound.
I think this proves once again that social media’s role in breaking news has become very important.
Did you witness the buzz of Osama bin Laden’s death? Did you participate? Leave a comment below!