“#schleichdiduoaschloch” Terror, Collective Memory, and Social Media

Abstract

On November 2, 2020, the Austrian capital Vienna experienced the worst terrorist attack in decades: A self-proclaimed Islamist gunman killed four people and injured 23 others. The attack triggered an extremely strong media response, especially in the so-called social media. This article focuses on the days and weeks following the terrorist attack on Twitter as well as its first anniversary and the question of how collective memories formed within a very short time through the jointly negotiated remembrance of the terrorist attack by social media users around the world. The study also shows how the Vienna attack was incorporated into other pre-existing collective memories of other terrorist attacks and how it created memory waves spanning the whole globe. Within the first 48 hr, the narratives that should dominate the debate and the memory of the attack for the coming weeks took shape. The attack in Vienna was primarily reflected in places where comparable attacks had occurred in recent years and became a narrative part of other political or ideological conflicts.