Graphic: How the Internet cared more about Paris than Beirut

One day before Paris was attacked on Nov 13, Beirut suffered its deadliest suicide bombing since the end of its civil war in 1990, killing 43 people. Both attacks have been claimed by ISIS but only one stricken city has held the world's attention online. Here's a look at how Singapore and the world searched for information about these acts of terror on Google. And see how the related hashtags trended on Twitter.

Reactions on Google

Note: The data from the Google search results are normalised to an index of 100.

Worldwide searches on Paris, Beirut, ISIS and Syria

Search trends for the term "Paris" on Google reached record highs as a direct result of the attacks on Friday, Nov 13 that killed at least 128 people. Searches for the terms "Beirut" and "Syria" were almost negligible in comparison. Searches regarding ISIS started to see an upward trend only on Nov 16.

Worldwide searches on Paris, Beirut, ISIS and Syria

Singapore searches on two major ISIS-claimed attacks over two days

Searches for "Paris" in Singapore followed similar patterns to worldwide trends. For "Beirut" searches, Singapore trended slightly higher and more prolonged than worldwide searches.

Singapore searches on two major ISIS-claimed attacks over two days

Singapore had the highest search interest for 'Paris' in region

Searches for 'Paris' in Singapore are the highest in region

Paris attacks vs Bangkok blast

Searches for "Paris" in Singapore in the aftermath of the Nov 13 attacks surpassed that for "Bangkok" following the Aug 17 blast at the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist attraction. The explosion, which was believed to be targeted at Thailand's tourism and economy, killed 20 and injured 125.

Paris attacks vs Bangkok blast

Most searched questions from Nov 15 and 16 in Singapore

  • What happend in Paris?
  • Why did ISIS attack Paris?
  • Is it safe to go to Paris now?
  • Who attacked Paris?
  • How to change Facebook profile picture to Paris

Reactions on Twitter

There were over 6.5 million #PrayForParis tweets worldwide, almost three times the number of #ParisAttacks tweets. In comparison, there were only 9,297 worldwide #BeirutAttacks tweets over the same period.

Reactions on Twitter

#PrayForSyria overtook #PrayForParis

Reacting to France's decision to heavily bomb ISIS-held territories in Syria, many have taken to Twitter to ask for peace causing #PrayForSyria to overtake #PrayForParis tweets late on Sunday.

#PrayForSyria overtook #PrayForParis

Source: Topsy, Google News Lab

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