&gt; They did not compare it to the news cycle<p>Such as the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Or the rise of ISIL and Boko Haram in early 2013.<p>I still think the study was well executed, but the instant effect seems to disappear when you remove the 6-7 months before mid june 2013.<p>The long-term effect they claim to observe is more shaky. (I think one can find &quot;statistically significant&quot; groupings of say, Harry Potter articles, that show a similar peak and decline around the Snowden revelations.)<p>Can we find more flaws in this paper?