Social Media as a Source of Information and Misinformation on the Example of the Notre Dame Fire

Purpose: The aim of this article is to analyse the activity of individual users, institutions and organisations in social media in the context of the fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral. The main threats of using this type of tools in crisis communication are presented, with particular emphasis on the propagation of information and disinformation. Introduction: The development of social media (platforms) in the global Internet means that they have become a tool commonly used by various types of private organisations, public administration and services. Using this medium gives great opportunities in the process of providing current information, efficient communication with the local community, building positive relations and creating a positive image of the organisation. Social media are also used by the government administration and emergency services of many countries during each of the four phases of crisis management (mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery). Information and communication technologies together with social media play an important role in contemporary people’s lives. They constitute an important part of everyday reality and are intrinsically related to it. The fire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019 was widely commented on social media. The existing traditional methods of communication, such as press, television or radio, have significant limitations consisting in the inability to interact with the media users. Only the person who created the information could be the broadcaster. The internet, and social media in particular, has changed dramatically this state of affairs, giving recipients the opportunity to interact with people/institutions generating content. Methodology: The method applied in the article is that of literature review in the area of Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 development as well as the course of the fire of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Statistical analysis was performed using Google Trends. The paper indicates the main sources of opportunities and threats to users' activity in social media, with particular emphasis on the aspects related to the efficient operation of emergency services. Conclusions: The role of social media in crisis situations has not yet been established. It is evolving and it can be expected that with time it will be used to an increasing extent also in cases such as fires and other threats to cultural goods. The authors recommend further research on the behaviour of users of social networking sites, groups and the entire portal.


Introduction
Transparent, planned and practiced communication with an internal and external environment is the foundation of the good and effective operation of every organisation, in particular, public administration institutions. The main goal of a communication process is the exchange of information among the parties involved, and it aims to develop a common interpretation of a given situation. Communication should also be considered in the context of the mutual attitude of the parties involved towards interaction and information flow in a one-way or multi-directional way. It should be noted that in the case of a one-way communication, the sender is oriented towards the distribution of his assessment of the situation to other recipients, which takes into account the discrepancy in attitude, knowledge or propensity to act and may turn out to be ineffective.
Communication can also be perceived in terms of interaction which also includes information obtained from social partners. In 2008, the concept of Web 3.0 entered the dictionary of IT specialists, which marks another transformation of the possibilities of user interaction within the Internet. A key feature of this stage is the use of semantic networks, artificial intelligence and three-dimensional graphics. Semantic Internet is an initiative postulating "representing data in formats that enable their automatic processing and integration, as well as an automatic inference based on them" [3]. Therefore, it is aimed at enabling access to the information contained on websites not only to users but also to autonomously operating algorithms. Such technical possibilities have provided more opportunities for the business use of the Internet, using e.g. entertainment space. Global social media uniting millions of users around the world, such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, began to emerge, and are now a very significant factor influencing the mood, opinions or views of the society. The information dissemination model has thus become more liberal, and the broadly understood society has become the actual creator of the message [4].   accurately observes "not the element itself, but a great number of comments was seen as a sign from God" and that is a sign of the times [14]. These opinions and comments were articulated largely in the digital world, especially on social media. Another interesting example of a Facebook profile which broadcast the fire online is LADBible. The transmission conducted by the LADBible profile was slightly less popular, generating a total of 221 thousand reactions, but in this case, it is interesting to note that, on a daily basis, this profile provides users with popular but intellectually rather unrefined entertainment.  fied true and false rumours on Twitter confirms that fake news spreads faster and more widely than real news [19]. The reason for this is, among others, the fact that these messages are highly emotional and therefore draw the attention of end-users in a highly effective manner [18]. In the case of Notre-Dame, several dangerous fake news appeared in the first few hours, introducing to the discussion, among others, racist narrative. They  Hale told buzzfeednews.com: "For the record, I completely believe [the fire] was an accident. The Jesuit who texted me -my friend -believes it was an accident" [19].
On the other hand, short, low-resolution video material has   suggest that these two people were Muslim and were laughing because of the fire. The news agency was surprised that some users found it appropriate to speculate on the religious beliefs of these two men solely on the basis of their appearance [22].
The controversial photo -presented in Figure 3 -has been thoroughly analysed by many organisations fighting disinformation on social media, such as Politifact [23], Nieuwscheckers.nl [24], or Fact Check AFP [25].
The photograph was initially considered to be fake, but finally, it turned out to be true -however, the smile of the students was caused by the fact that one of them had been caught in the safety tape surrounding the zone a moment earlier [25]. Fact Check AFP [25].

Konkluzje
The agitation of the whole world connected with the fire caused an avalanche of comments from politicians from many countries. Twitter has also become a tool for discussion at a level unimaginable outside the world of social media. The President of the United States wrote in a public message on Twitter, "So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!" This statement was widely criticized by many firefighting specialists from many countries [31].

Conclusions
This paper is an assessment of the problem of the role and the potential of social media in a crisis, in this case, a fire. The number of Internet users, as well as social media users, which has been growing for over a dozen years, indicates that it makes sense to use social media as a tool, on the one hand, for providing current information about a crisis, and, on the other hand, for obtaining data which may be important when planning and implementing rescue and aid measures. This is due to a key feature of social media which is a two-way communication style and interaction between the sender and recipient of the information.
Another important aspect is the use of mechanisms and algorithms that automatically collect data on user activity, such as location and its change at a specific time and place. The data -used on a daily basis to generate profits by social media platforms -during a crisis can be implemented by the fire brigade and emergency services to ensure the most effective disposition and management of forces and resources on the spot. This state of affairs shows that the role of using social media in a crisis is developmental and will probably be used to an increasing extent also in the case of fires and other threats to cultural heritage.