During the symposium on Web 2.0  which took place in Madrid on February 18, in Camilo Jose Cela University, the Director of Communications of Tuenti, Icarus Moyano, defended the privacy provided by social networks compared to the lack of regard for security showed by the traditional media outlets which have no scruples to reproduce private information from social media sites.

Spanish Social Networks have been under the scrutiny of traditional media channels which have deemed social media outlets in Spain as partly responsible of indiscriminate violence. A journalist found out that the 17 year old girl killed in Seville, Marta Castillo, had a profile on Tuenti, the most popular Spanish social network among teenagers, and so did her friends. One of them has confessed being the criminal.

Moyano criticized the newspapers that have made use of Tuenti to publish private messages, profiles and conversations among friends of the murdered 17 years old girl Marta Castillo, considering this a “breach agaisnt her privacy rights”. He added that 95% of users interacting in this network have privacy settings on. Tuenti’s director of Communication stated that Marta Castillo’s case has become a target for sensationalist media.

Spain is the second country in Europe and fifth in the world in the use of social networks such as  Facebook or Tuenti, with 13 million users. Seven out of ten social media users are less than 35 years old. Only Canada, Brazil, UK and Mexico outnumber Spain. Worldwide, more than half of Internet users use social networks to interact with their social circle.

Another participant at the symposium was Rosa Jimenez, a journalist and blogger from the most populat traditional newspaper in Spain, El País, who defended the figure of traditional journalistic channels, whereas other speakers highlighted how news have shifted from belonging to the media to be part of the public.

The bottom line of this debate is that at a time of economic turmoil when advertising is feared to be reduced to minimum in order to save costs, digital platforms arise as cheap and innovative new media formats, making the user the vital part of the marketing equation. Traditional media has understood where the enemy is and while they have been losing advertising revenue at an alarming rate, social media networks emerge as a much more targeted way to appeal to specific demografics. I don’t rule out more gratuitous attacks from tradional media outles in order to try to demonise online channels.

Much more insight will be provided in the International Search Summit where I will be speaking about all sort of Social Media developments across Europe.