Michael Jackson’s Death Dominates Twitter

26 June 2009

Yesterday we saw the loss of a cultural icon and its effect on the Internet community. Twitter was flooded yesterday by tweets about Michael Jackson being rushed to a LA hospital, where he died of cardiac arrest. Once the news was confirmed twitter got slammed with Tweets expressing grief, prayers, and memorable moments of the fallen "King of Pop."

Michael Jackson's death rocked Twitter as no other news story had. It surpassed the Iran Election and even the equally tragic death of Farrah Fawcett. Over 22% of all tweets yesterday contained the phrase "Michael Jackson". Combined with tweets with phrases like "MJ" and "RIPMJ" the combined totals 30% of all tweets. This had a devastating effect on Twitter causing it to crash multiple times yesterday. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was stunned by the effect as he stated "Stepped off a 10hr flight to discover Twitter is essentially a wake for recently departed Michael Jackson."

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The effect of these Tweets spawned a number of hoaxes as well; one of which involved the supposed death of Jeff Goldblum. According to the rumor mill Goldblum fell from a cliff in New Zealand while filming. Although the news of Goldblums' death was quickly exposed as a hoax, it was not even close to enough in order to stop the onslaught of Tweets.

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The effect of Michael Jackson's death was not only felt on Twitter, but just about everywhere else imaginable. YouTube saw a boom in traffic for videos of Thriller, Beat It, and other popular titles from Jackson. Facebook saw a triple the average of Michael Jackson updates, and Google began to error out from the sheer amount of Michael Jackson search terms, which they assumed were an automated attack.

This just goes to show the profound effect that Michael Jackson had on our pop culture. In honor of the king of Pop we have embedded one of his greatest videos. Enjoy!

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