Events
IAGA SUMMIT New York 2017
Te fact that it took United Airlines two days to respond in a thoughtful way, ensured that the event became what Richard describes as an ‘Internet folly.’ “Exactly the same thing happened when McDonalds’ Twitter account was compromised at the beginning of April, whereby the corporation sent out a tweet trolling Donald Trump,” states Mr. Torrenzano. “Such hacks are going to continue and most corporations are just not ready to handle them. Teir social media departments are excellent at promoting a product or a service, but they don’t understand the issues involving a digital attack.”
Highlighting this distinction between promotion and protection, the now embattled CEO of United Airlines, was awarded with PRWeek’s “Top Communicator of the Year” honour just three weeks before two major social media scandals hit the fan. Managing your own message and containing the damage created by others appears to be a totally separate skill-set.
DEALING WITH FAKE NEWS Te other thing executives need to focus upon is fake
news. A recent survey of 800 executives showed that 75 per cent of the management boards were concerned both about fakes news and leaks inside their own corporations. “Fake news is not new,” says Richard. “If you go back to Roman times, in its original form, people used to write critiques on the side of tavern walls rating food, service and wine. It’s ancient graffiti that was also used for vicious political attacks. Te infamous rumor that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned was spread through graffiti, which like modern day social media, can rock companies, governments and even overthrow them.”
One of the phenomenons of fake news is that people tend to believe the stories if they affirm opinions they already hold, or would like to believe are true. In the case of the hacker who tweeted from the McDonald’s corporate account the following: “You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands.”
It took McDonald’s seven hours to take down the tweet and issue an apology to its 150,000 Twitter followers, explaining it was a hack and that it was launching an investigation. However, by that stage social media was already awash with users proclaiming they were loving the message in one camp, or hating the brand and never buying from them again in the other, or simply conspiracy theorising that police were looking to arrest the hamburglar for the crime.
“A huge problem corporations are facing is disgruntled employees,” underlines Mr. Torrenzano. “It’s an issue that’s been building in the last two years and is going to take off like lightening in the next two-three years. Disgruntled employees have a lot of information about companies and they have the means to distribute it. If you remember the movie “Te Dark Knight - Alfred, the butler played by Michael Caine, is asked by Batman, why does the Joker steal? To which he replies: “Because it’s good sport. Some men are not looking for anything logical like money, they can’t be bought, bullied or reasoned with, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Well, we’ve seen these people using Wikileaks to do exactly that and it’s an issue we’re starting to face everyday. It is harder and harder in this environment to distinguish these trolls from criminals, activists or blackmailers, hiding behind the mask of Anonymous.”
Attacks on corporate entities are not new, but what is new and what Mr. Torrenzano is convinced that organisations don’t understand fully, is that these attacks are amplified in terms of global reach by speed and magnitude, due to an Internet that can be searched and reacted to via mobile phones. “Once something is posted on the Internet, it is always there, you can’t get rid of it,” warns Richard. “And unlike the tavern wall in Pompeii, which could not be seen throughout the Roman Empire, all you had to do to get rid of it was paint over it. Today, these messages are universal and you can’t just paint over them. Even if
If you remember the movie “The Dark Knight - Alfred, the butler played by
Michael Caine, is asked by Batman, why does the Joker steal? To which he
replies: “Because it’s good sport. Some men are not
looking for anything logical like money, they can’t be
bought, bullied or reasoned with, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Well, we’ve seen these
people using Wikileaks to do exactly that and it’s an
issue we’re starting to face everyday. It is harder and
harder in this environment to distinguish these trolls from criminals, activists or
blackmailers, hiding behind the mask of Anonymous.”
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
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