&gt; Why is this incident different than the Russian bombing?<p>Well its quite well known that certain events create more &quot;buzz&quot; than others.<p>The plane crash is mostly limited in impact to the bereaved who are probably mourning rather than tweeting.  At least in the UK the travel chaos afterwards caused more &quot;buzz&quot; than the actual event itself, perhaps because angry tourists are more likely to tweet&#x2F;Facebook.<p>The attacks in Paris directly affected thousands who will have all communicated that experience directly to friends and on social media.  It went on for hours and was watched by million.  For most people it did have more impact, however shallow that may have been.