Wikipedia:How ITN works (and how it doesn't)

This page aims to list things that no one should bother nominating for ITN because they won't be posted.

• Arbitrary milestones.
• Low-level resignations or firings. Specifically, "anything less than head-of-state or head-of-government getting replaced."
• State-level politics in the United States.
• Most mass shootings don't get posted if they happened in the United States because such shootings are so common in this country.
• Bills being vetoed.
• TV stars being fired or suspended.
• Sentencing in criminal trials, even if the trial was very high profile.
• Supreme Court nominations. New justices actually joining the Court, however, will usually be posted.
• Stuff Trump tweets about.

What is a high enough death toll?

Important note: This is not a guideline; rather, it is an attempt to assess the extent to which the death toll of an event relates to whether it will or will not be posted on ITN. There is not, and has never been, a guideline regarding the "minimum death toll" needed for such posting.

Despite intermittent protestations to the contrary, the number of people killed in a tragic event (earthquake, mass shooting, bombing, etc.) a major factor in determining whether it will be posted or not. As Ad Orientem noted in March 2018, "Although there is no written rule, in my experience accidents with low death tolls usually don't make it onto ITN." This probably also applies to terrorist attacks and other non-accidental tragedies. So here I will try to compile examples of death tolls that were high enough for different types of tragedies.

First, a general rule: "Any disaster with 300 deaths is probably worth mentioning in the ITN" -Nergaal (though this was back in 2010, and things are definitely somewhat different now)

But perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind with this section is that the number of deaths is never the only factor in determining if something is "significant" enough to be posted to ITN. With that being said, let's look at what has/hasn't been posted as classified by both type of event and death toll.

Accidental explosions

• Knowing death toll may not even be necessary if it's obviously a major and unusual accident. Nevertheless, 17 is a good lower bound.

Aviation incidents

• "...commercial airline crashes with two-digit death tolls are almost automatically notable and postable." -Brandmeister
• Per Brandmeister's quote above, airplane/helicopter crashes with 50 or more deaths have generally been posted easily. In contrast, 9 deaths in such a crash is too low.
• For hot air balloon crashes, 19 deaths is enough.
• This standard does not apply for accidents involving military aircraft, which will generally not be posted even if in the double-digits range.

Disease outbreaks

• 303 is high enough. In fact, even just 23 deaths should be enough.
• 7,100 is high enough to get you not only a blurb but also a banner.

Earthquakes

• 23 is high enough.

Floods

• 18 is high enough.

Hurricanes/typhoons

• 33 is enough (in China). It also helps, of course, if two hurricanes are hitting the same country at the same time, killing over 40 people in total.
• 36 is also enough in Bangladesh.
• In fact, 17 is also enough in Bangladesh (though the death toll did rise after posting).

Landslides

• 7 is enough in Norway. But 113 is not enough in Ethiopia.

Maritime incidents

• 19 is enough, even for military accidents.

Mass shootings

• In the United States, the threshold for posting is significantly higher than you might expect, because mass shootings are exceptionally common in America (as noted in the lead to this essay). That being said, 17 killed is enough for posting. In contrast, 3, 5, or even 10 is typically insufficient. There are many, many additional examples of U.S. mass shootings with only "a few" (i.e. 2 or 3) fatalities that weren't posted, several of which may be viewed here (and elsewhere in the ITNC archives, of course).
• It is important to note this caveat with regard to the above point: circumstances surrounding any event, including a mass shooting in the U.S., must always be taken into account along with its death toll. Thus, mass shootings in the U.S. with "low" death tolls by American standards can be posted if the motive/location/etc. of the shooting are highly unusual. For example, 12 people in a "typical", otherwise unremarkable mass shooting in the US = not posted, but 12 people in a mass shooting in the US + occurred in a US military complex = posted. Also, 11 people shot in a mass shooting that was live-streamed and accompanied with a 180-page racist screed on an alt-right website will also be posted.
• In almost all other countries, it is much more likely that a mass shooting with a given death toll will be posted than if it happened in the United States (where such shootings are far more common). Indeed, for Canada, a death toll of only 6 should be enough for posting. 3 in France is also enough. However, 4 in Belgium is not enough. In such edge cases, the determining factor seems to be the perception and sensationalism of the event.

Motor vehicle crashes

• 38 is enough.

Protests

• 35 is enough.

Rail accidents

• 8 is enough.

Stampedes

• 36 is enough.
• 4 is not enough.

Structural collapses

• 6 is not high enough but 45 is high enough.

Terrorist attacks

• In terror-prone countries like Afghanistan, 8 is too low but 61 is high enough. Similarly, 60 is high enough in Pakistan (also of course a terror-prone country), 76 is enough in Iraq (ditto), while 50 is enough in Nigeria (ditto, to some extent, because of Boko Haram).
• In other countries, 60 (for France) is enough. In Kenya, only 22 deaths are needed, apparently because terrorist attacks are especially uncommon there. Similarly, 16 would do the job in a country like Thailand where terrorism is less of a problem than in the Middle East.
• In some situations, otherwise relatively minor, low death toll attacks can be posted. For instance, if the attack occurred in a major holy site of the second largest religion in the world, it may be (and in this case, was) posted even if only 4 people died. Similarly, if an attack is committed with a gun in a part of the world where such attacks are very rare, it may be posted, even if it only killed 8 people.
• In extraordinary scenarios, terrorist incidents where the target or targets are sufficiently high-profile need not have any death toll at all, even if the attack was thwarted or otherwise unsuccessful.