It’s as if the networked public sphere, and indeed traditional institutions of democracy, can be DDOSed via releasing large numbers of flares, each attracting and consuming attention, thus making focus and sustained conversation impossible.
2017, Zeynep Tufekci, “Epilogue: The Uncertain Climb”, in Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, page 274