'Digital Wildfires': a challenge to the governance of social media?

Abstract

The increasing popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr has been accompanied by concerns over the growing prevalence of 'harmful' online interactions. The term 'digital wildfire' has been coined to characterise the capacity for provocative content on social media to propagate rapidly and cause offline harm. The apparent risks posed by digital wildfires create questions over the suitable governance of digital social spaces. This paper provides an overview of some preliminary findings of an ongoing research project that seeks to build an empirically grounded methodology for the study and advancement of the responsible governance of social media.