Pope Sends His First Tweet Via iPad
Pope Benedict XVI has posted his first tweet! The pope has gone digital, announcing the launch of the new site www.news.va, so the world can keep up with what’s going on at the Vatican.
Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Peanutweeter Brings Peanuts Together with Twitter
From Angela Watercutte on WIRED’s Underwire:
Everyone has at least one funny person they follow on Twitter just for the lulz, but sometimes the things they say would be even more laughable if they weren’t constantly spewing from the same avatar.
Peanutweeter changes that. The @Peanutweeter Tumblr blog and Twitter feed fulfill a very simple idea: Matching somewhat random Twitter posts with less-random Peanuts comics. The results are hilarious.
“The site arose from the concept that the amusing and sometimes outrageous tweets out there would be even funnier or sometimes darker if they came from someone that everyone could identify with,” site creator T. Jason Agnello told Wired.com by e-mail.
Why Are Democrats So Weak? Thoughts on the Weiner ‘Scandal’ (Video)
Rachel Maddow speaks with Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks who has plenty to say:
French Media Ban The Mention Of Specific Social Networks On Air
In an attempt to reduce the amount of ‘free publicity’ given to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, the French have banned any mention of specific sites in their TV and radio broadcasts. One of the reasons for this ban is to allow a fair platform for smaller networking companies in the future. BBC News reports:
French TV and radio presenters have been banned from mentioning social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on air.
The country’s broadcasting watchdog has ruled that doing so would break guidelines on advertising.
Stations can still talk about services without naming them, it said.
The French government is seen by many internet watchers as overly keen to regulate in relation to new media and the web.
In a ruling, published online, the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), said: “Referring viewers or listeners to the page of the social network without mentioning it has the character of information.
[Continues at…
Music Video Parodies Weiner Scandal
Rep. Anthony Weiner announced today that he did indeed tweet the lewd picture of himself, as well as engage in various inappropriate conversations with other women. (Read more about his press conference at The Hill) As you sit and contemplate the use of social networks in political scandals, here is a music video about Weiner’s ‘accidental’ Twitter post in the parody form of SNL’s “Dick in a Box”:
Twitter Foils UK Celebrities’ Favorite Weapon: The Super-Injunction
Ryan Giggs. Photo: Allison Pasciuto
The worst kept secret in Britain has been completely undermined by an onslaught of tweets. Chris Gayomali reviews the Ryan Giggs affair for TIME:
Earlier this month Ryan Giggs, a professional soccer player who plays for the U.K.’s Manchester United, obtained a court-ordered injunction to keep secret the details of an extra-marital affair with British television personality Imogen Thomas. The short story is that he didn’t want the U.K. press writing about his misconducts.
The move appeared to backfire, however, when news of the injunction spread like wildfire through over 70,000 Twitter accounts, causing Mr. Giggs to take up legal action against “persons unknown” as well as the social network itself.
Legal experts assumed that gag orders breached on Twitter were protected because the website is outside of the British legal system’s jurisdiction.
However, in a surprising move, a senior executive from Twitter admitted to the Telegraph that it would turn user information over…
The Taliban Joins Twitter
Military maneuvering in the 21st century means the Pentagon and Islamicist rebels responding to one another’s tweets, apparently. If this is a hoax, it has fooled the Guardian, among others:
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they eschewed most modern technology, including television and music players. But in the latest sign of the hardline movement’s rapprochement with at least some areas of the modern world, the Taliban have embraced microblogging.
Their Twitter feed, @alemarahweb, pumps out several messages a day, keeping 993 followers up to date with often highly exaggerated reports of strikes against the “infidel forces” and the “Karzai puppet regime”. Most messages are in Pashtu, with links to news stories on the elaborate and multilingual website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban’s shadow government likes to style itself.
Today, the feed broke into English for the first time, with a tweet about an attack on police in Farah province:…
A Baby Gets a TSA Patdown (Photo)
Cynthia Newsome reports on NBC KSHB-TV
KANSAS CITY, Missouri— A photo of two Transportation Security Administration agents doing a full pat down on a baby, approximately 8 months old, has gone viral.
It happened at the Kansas City International Airport.
A passenger, Jacob Jester, captured the image on his cell phone. Since he tweeted the picture on Saturday, it has had more than 200,000 hits.
The photo shows the helpless baby being held up in the air by his mother while the TSA workers do their job. Jester has an 8-month-old son and would not want his son to be subjected to a hand search by TSA agents.
Bin Laden Tweeter Becomes Internet Sensation
Abbottabad, Pakistan, from Shimla Hill. Photo: Fraz.khalid1
Without realizing, Sohaid Athar tweeted about the attacks on Osama bin Laden from the comforts of his suburban home in Abbottabad. Athar began tweeting his complaints about the noise disturbance from helicopters he heard about his home. After a few tweets, Athar and his followers began connecting the information of non-Pakistani helicopters and loud, vibrating, sounds in the area to the reported assassination of bin Laden. Athar was the first on the internet to publish real-time updates on the attack. Via The Raw Story:
An IT consultant who hoped for a quiet life in a summer resort town in Pakistan has become an Internet sensation as the first to report the attack on the world’s most wanted man.
Sohaib Athar was just another witty voice on micro-blogging site Twitter until he heard the sound of helicopters near his home in a Abbottabad, 30 miles (50 kilometres) north…
Stephen Fry Pledges to Go To Prison Over ‘Twitter Joke’ Trial
Via BBC News:
Comedian Stephen Fry has said he is “prepared to go to prison” over the “Twitter joke” trial.
Fry was at a benefit gig for a man who is appealing against his conviction for sending a menacing communication. Paul Chambers had tweeted: “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
Fry argued that Chambers’ tweet was an example of Britain’s tradition of self-deprecating humour and banter.
Chambers’ case has become a cause celebre on Twitter, with hundreds of people reposting his original comments in protest at the conviction.
“This [verdict] must not be allowed to stand in law,” Fry said, adding that he would continue to repeat Chambers’ message and face prison “if that’s what it takes”.
Stephen Colbert, Inspired by Senator Jon Kyl’s Big Planned Parenthood Lie, Introduces Twitter’s #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
I think Stephen Colbert has found a great use for Twitter. A quick background on this from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell:
Remember in Friday’s “Rewrite” when we showed you the big lie Sen. Jon Kyl told on the Senate floor about Planned Parenthood? The lie that “well over 90%” of Planned Parenthood’s services go to abortions?
The lie that Sen. Kyl’s staff later said “was not intended to be a factual statement” — a remark Lawrence [O'Donnell] called “one of the strangest clarifications in Senate history?” Well, we weren’t the only ones who took notice. So did Stephen Colbert.
The Onion: Facebook ‘Is Truly A Dream Come True For The CIA’ (Video)
Thanks to Erick Schonfeld on Techcrunch for the find.
Even though this is intended to be a joke, the CIA’s interest in what it calls “open source intelligence” has been documented (see here and here).
Via the Onion:
After years of secretly monitoring the public, we were astounded so many people would willingly publicize where they live, their religious and political views, an alphabetized list of all their friends, personal emails addresses, phone numbers, hundreds of photos of themselves, and even status updates about what they were doing moment to moment. It is truly a dream come true for the CIA.
Socialbots To The Rescue
Many of us have encountered various “bots” in chat and other environments online for years. However, their behavior is apparently improving to the point where we are able to be more easily gamed by them. New Scientist reports on Socialbot use on Twitter (via SBS World News Australia):
Over a two-week period, the three “socialbots” were able to integrate themselves into the group, and gained close to 250 followers between them. They received more than 240 responses to the tweets they sent.
This effort was in fact part of Socialbots 2011, a competition designed to test whether bots can be used to alter the structure of a social network.
Each team had a Twitter account controlled by a socialbot. Like regular human users, the bot could follow other Twitter users and send messages. Bots were rewarded for the number of followers they amassed and the number of responses their tweets generated.
…The military may…
Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga Go Where The Money Is: Silicon Valley
Facebook = Katy Perry; Twitter = Snoop Dogg; Google = Lady Gaga. Who’s got the biggest star? Not much competition as Alexia Tsotsis points out at TechCrunch:
As the battle for Silicon Valley engineering talent intensifies, it seems as if hot tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter have launched some sort of ridiculous competition as to who could can score the biggest Hollywood talent for an onsite appearance, in order to wow current and future employees.
Between Ashton Kutcher and Chamillionaire at Y Combinator Demo days…
Why Do White People Stink On Twitter?
Paul Carr asks the question that most Twitter followers have been pondering all day (at TechCrunch):
“What Does It Say About The Wisdom Of The Crowd That “White People Stink” Has Been Trending On Twitter For Almost 24 Hours?”
And helpfully supplies the answer:
“Everything.”
Gilbert Gottfried Fired As Voice Of Aflac Duck Over Japan Jokes
CNN reports:
The Aflac duck lost its voice Monday after the insurance giant fired the comedian behind the commercial quack for tweeting jokes about the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan.
The Columbus, Georgia-based company fired Gilbert Gottfried less than an hour after discovering the tweets, according to a news release from Aflac.
“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” Michael Zunda, the company’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement.
So far, the earthquake and tsunami have left more than 2,400 people dead, and thousands more in shelters or missing. Most of the tweets attributed to Gottfried make light of the natural disaster in either a flippant or sexual manner…
Charlie Sheen Quotes Presented By Superheroes
Well, we discovered this week Charlie Sheen does have a superpower: getting a million Twitter followers in 25 hours. If you’d like to take a break from the serious news of the week, very funny post from Laura Hudson on Comics Alliance:
Earlier this week, we decided that the only way to deal with the exploding celebrity Death Star that is Charlie Sheen was to take his spectacularly hubristic comments and put them in the mouths of superheroes, with the help of Chris Haley and Curt Franklin of the webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again.
You, the readers, told us that the six measly pieces of original art where your favorite Marvel and DC characters reiterate the philosophical jewels of the only celebrity whose veins pump pure tiger blood was simply not enough, and we have heard your demands.
Update: Actually Sheen may be trying to use his new-found superpower for good, the Hollywood Reporter is claiming he’s going to Haiti with Sean Penn.
Web-Free ‘Tweeting’ Brought To Egypt By Google
It’s good to know the world won’t stop if the internet does. Well, as long as cellphone service is always available. Via The Strait Times:
GOOGLE, in response to the Internet blockade in Egypt, said on Monday that it had created a way to post messages to microblogging service Twitter by making telephone calls.
Google worked with Twitter and freshly acquired SayNow, a startup specialising in social online voice platforms, to make it possible for anyone to ‘tweet’ by leaving a message at any of three telephone numbers.
‘Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground,’ Google product manager Abdel-Karim Mardini and SayNow co-founder Ujjwal Singh said in a blog post.
‘Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service – the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection,’ they…
Warning: All 640,000+ @WikiLeaks Followers Now Subject to U.S. Government Subpoena Of Twitter
Zack Whittaker writes on ZDNet:
The US government has subpoenaed Twitter in a bid to support an ongoing criminal investigation into whether Wikileaks and people involved or connected to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic member of parliament, broke the law.
According to Wikileaks lawyer Mark Stephens live on the BBC News a short time ago, it is believed Facebook and Google (see here) have also been contacted regarding Wikileaks members and potential whistleblowers.
Update (12:20am GMT): Mark Stephens on the BBC News also makes clear that the court order will also cover the “600,000 odd followers that Wikileaks has on Twitter“.
The order asks specifically for names of those attached to selected accounts, user and screen names, and any registered mailing or postal addresses. It also asks for email addresses, credit card details where possible, and even content relating to connected mobile phones.
The server logs which could identify the computer and geographical location of where even private messages were sent from have also…
Activists Hijack North Korean Tweets
It seems North Korea’s internet borders are the only ones capable of being breached. Via BBC News:
Hackers have taken over social media sites associated with the North Korean regime, to make derogatory posts.
On 8 January, a Twitter account affiliated to the North’s regime began posting messages calling for an uprising.
Meanwhile a video appeared on the regime’s YouTube channel, depicting heir-apparent Kim Jong-un driving his sports car into women and children.
Users of a popular South Korean website have claimed responsibility.
The attacks coincided with Jong-un’s birthday.
[Continues at BBC News]
