Schumpeter - A world of trouble
The WEF speculates that “digital wildfires” could wreak global havoc. The
internet spreads disinformation in the blink of an eye. Traders, human and
robotic, act on it faster than you can say “flash crash”. In July 2012 oil
prices rose by more than $1 a barrel when a Twitter user, impersonating the
Russian interior minister, tweeted that Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, had
been “killed or injured”. In October NASDAQ halted trading in Google shares when
a leaked earnings report led to a $22 billion plunge in the company’s market
capitalisation. And in November the BBC was rocked when an irresponsible news
programme prompted Twitter users to accuse an innocent politician of
paedophilia.
