Welcome to the seminar!
Speaker
Moa Eriksson Krutrök
Title
Crisis narratives and networked rumors: The digital information landscape following a Swedish school shooting
Abstract
The largest mass shooting in Swedish history occurred on 4 February 2025 at the Risbergska School in Örebro, triggering a large-scale emergency response and multiple lockdowns, affecting several schools in the area. In the immediate aftermath, an intense demand for information emerged. Social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, became primary sources of real-time updates, and forums such as Flashback – an anonymous discussion forum – experienced high traffic (and temporary technical outages) as users speculated about the perpetrator’s identity, potential motives, and unverified connections to other incidents. This seminar focuses on ongoing research by Moa Eriksson Krutrök and Simon Lindgren focusing on the role of social media platforms during crises and the dissemination of rumors, with a particular focus on how information circulates in decentralized digital environments. By analyzing three key platforms used for information spread after the attack – Flashback, X (Twitter), and TikTok – their study investigates the mechanisms through which unverified claims gain traction, the role of platform affordances in shaping rumor dynamics, and the interplay between social media users, traditional media, and institutional crisis communication.
