Twitter users with few followers may escape action over offensive tweets

Lawmakers debate social media 'reach' 

 

Social media users with few friends or followers may be more likely to get away with posting offensive material, whereas more popular accounts may face prosecution, under new laws.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Kevin Starmer QC is developing guidelines which will combat the growing influence of Twitter and Facebook, while also protecting the nature of free speech online.
According to a Telegraph report, Starmer said it may be appropriate for the reach of a social networking account to be taken into consideration before the police take action over "grossly offensive" tweets, mainly due to the sheer scale of potential offenses.
He said: "Millions of cases could potentially be put through our system. More cases than the combined number of every other offence on the statute book."

Setting boundaries

The apparent haste to establish boundaries comes following a host of recent incidents, which attracted the attention of the authorities (i.e. those who carry handcuffs and big sticks).
First came the arrest of a teenager who tweeted Olympic diver Tom Daley abuse regarding the death of his father. Despite Daley retweeting the message, the offender was was not prosecuted due to the relative obscurity of his Twitter account.
Just last week, a Kent man was arrested after posting a photo of himself burning a Remembrance Day Poppy on Facebook.
The arrests relate to section 127 of the Communications Act, which outlaws the sending of "grossly offensive" messages via telecoms networks.
Section 127 has "never quite had the focus it has had over the last 12 months," said Starmer.

Obama's 'Four more years' tweet the most popular of all time

A tweet sent out by Barack Obama to herald his re-election as President of the United States has rapidly become the most popular of all time.
The post, which simply read "Four more years" and was accompanied by a photo of Obama embracing his wife Michelle, had already been retweeted over 350,000 times just an hour after it was posted.
The same tweet had been favourited by 122,000 Twitter users, with both numbers growing exponentially.
The victory tweet surpassed the previous record held by teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber which had received 223,376 times, according to The Atlantic.

Record breaker

Obama, whose campaign has harnessed social media extremely effectively even before he became a presidential candidate in 2008, has amassed a whopping 22 million followers on Twitter.
The record-breaking proclamation of victory came towards the close of a frenetic election night on Twitter, which will likely break records for posts and activity.
However, not all of the Twitter-based news was positive. The Apprentice U.S host Donald Trump (himself, fleetingly, a republican presidential hopeful) caused a furore with a barrage of explosive tweets.
"Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us," he tweeted from his @realDonaldTrump account, which has 1.3 million followers.

One hundred million voices

Five years ago, Twitter came to life when @jack sent the first Tweet to his seven followers. Now, 100 million active users around the globe turn to Twitter to share their thoughts and find out what’s happening in the world right now.

More than half of them log in to Twitter each day to follow their interests. For many, getting the most out of Twitter isn’t only about tweeting: 40 percent of our active users simply sign in to listen to what’s happening in their world.

Twitter’s global reach gives a voice to people around the world and as far away as the International Space Station. After launching Hindi, Filipino, Malay and Simplified and Traditional Chinese in the coming weeks, Twitter will support 17 different languages.

Our 100 million active users range from passionate early adopters to recent converts. They include:

Leaders.Thirty-five global heads of state use Twitter as a primary way to communicate with their constituencies, from @JuliaGillard in Australia to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, @CFKArgentina. In the United States, frequent Tweeters include every Cabinet agency, 84 percent of state governors, and every major candidate for President. City leaders, like Mayors @CoryBooker of Newark and @MayorOfLondon among many more, share local news. More than 40 percent of the top global religious leaders are on Twitter, including @DalaiLama and the Pope, who sent his first Tweet from @news_va_en in June.

Athletes. Many US professional sports players are active on Twitter, including two-thirds of the NBA. Every team in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS tweets, as do cricket players in India, European football stars and many other celebrated athletes around the world. Fans and commentators join in for some of the most colorful conversations on Twitter.

Humanitarians.Additionally, over 99 percent of America's top 200 non-profits are on Twitter. Recently, in response to Hurricane Irene, @Fema created a special list of accounts to followfor the most up-to-date and official information, while @redcross signed up lists of official volunteers to assist in four-hour shifts to disseminate the latest information to those affected by the storm.

Entertainers.Eighty-seven percent of Billboard’s Top 100 musicians of 2010 are active on Twitter, connecting with fans to engage their audiences. Each of the top 50 Nielsen-rated TV shows are represented on Twitter. And who doesn’t love a daily dose of hilarity from their favorite comedian? Both new talent like @MindyKaling and @AzizAnsari and seasoned pros like @SteveMartinToGo and @ConanOBrien keep us laughing.

Reporters.Major newsrooms from @AJEnglish to @WashingtonPost actively use Twitter to supplement their reporting efforts. Reporters share stories and photos from the front lines, like New York Times reporter Brian Stelter’s on-the-ground coverage of the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, MO in May. Ordinary citizens break news and give us a view we might otherwise miss, like the now-famous Space Shuttle image that was retweeted over 2,300 times, and the first photo of the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River in 2009.

Thanks to all of you, we have 100 million reasons to celebrate.

Your world more connected

Twitter continues to grow around the globe at a record pace. Just a year ago, we delivered 65 million Tweets a day. Today, we generate over 200 million Tweets per day. One year ago, there were approximately 150,000 registered Twitter apps. Now, there are more than one million that connect to Twitter. And our team has grown from 250 people to more than 600 in the past 12 months.

More importantly, Twitter is where people around the globe come to instantly connect to what’s most meaningful to them. This makes Twitter the only place in the world to get a real-time pulse on what people are thinking and doing practically anywhere.

We’ve come very far in a short time. Now we have an opportunity to expand Twitter’s reach with a significant round of funding led by the venture firm DST Global, with the participation of several of our existing investors. We will use these resources to aggressively innovate, hire more great people and invest in international expansion.

Thank you for everything you’ve done to help get us here and for inspiring us to work even harder. We can’t wait for you to see what we have planned to make Twitter even better.

Timely Tweets: Now easier to see

We all come to Twitter to connect with the latest information on the topics and people we care about. So when we decide to follow a favorite brand, business or charitable organization, we expect to be among the first to get a special announcement, access to exclusive content or a great offer.

That's why starting today, we're introducing a way to ensure that the most important Tweets from the organizations you follow reach you directly, by placing them at or near the top of your timeline. These Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet, and like regular Tweets, they will appear in your timeline just once. Promoted Tweets can also be easily dismissed from your timeline with a single click.

We’ll be rolling out and testing this new offering over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO, JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America among others — with more to come soon. During this phase, you may also see Promoted Tweets in your timeline from non-profit organizations you follow, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.

From the start, our philosophy around advertising has been simple: We put our users first and strive to create products that enrich the Twitter experience for every Twitter user. We’re excited about this next step and look forward to your feedback.

200 million Tweets per day

Users on Twitter are now sending 200 million Tweets per day. For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and one year ago they posted 65 million a day.

For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

A billion Tweets are sent every five days. What’s in them? Everything about every topic imaginable – whether it’s a unique bird’s-eye view of the Shuttle launch as seen from an airplane window or cheers of support for soccer teams in this year’s Champions League tournament. Using Twitter helped a homeless man reunite with his daughter, sent two Cincinnati Reds fans to spring training on a player’s dime, and even helped residents of a small city in Korea find fresh water after its supply was cut off.

And, here are the top Trending Topics for the first half of 2011, divided into the two most popular categories:

World events/News

1. AH1N1 - Swine Flu
2. Mubarak - former Egyptian President
3. Easter - Christian holiday
4. Cairo - capital of Egypt
5. #prayforjapan - sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami
6. Chernobyl - site of nuclear disaster in 1986
7. Libia/Libya - site of an ongoing civil war
8. Fukushima - Japanese nuclear power plant
9. William & Kate - Newly-named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
10. Gadafi - Libyan political leader

Pop culture

1. Rebecca Black - pop singer
2. Femme Fatale - newly-released Britney Spears album
3. Charlie Sheen - actor
4. #tigerblood - hashtag popularized by Charlie Sheen
5. Nate Dogg - rapper
6. Anderson Silva - Brazilian mixed martial artist
7. Tom & Jerry - famous cartoon
8. Mumford & Sons - British rock band
9. Bieber alert - referring to artist Justin Bieber
10. Queen Gaga - referring to artist Lady Gaga