Comments on: Iran and Twitter http://urbanworkbench.com/iran-and-twitter Sustainable Designs for Life Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:19:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: <img src='http://urbanworkbench.com/wp-content/plugins/rpx/images/twitter.png'/> Mike Thomas http://urbanworkbench.com/iran-and-twitter/comment-page-1#comment-2942 Mike Thomas Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:54:10 +0000 http://urbanworkbench.com/?p=2536#comment-2942 Update: <a target="_blank" href="http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2009/6/21/4229895.html" rel="nofollow">Minister uses Twitter to spread the word on Canada's embassy in Iran</a>: <blockquote><p>Here's <a href="http://twitter.com/MinJK" rel="nofollow">Jason Kenney, Minister of Immigration of Citizenship making news on Twitter:</a></p><blockquote> <p>[<a href="http://twitter.com/MinJK/status/2270944208" rel="nofollow">Tweet at 1842 Sunday night</a>] <font size="4" face="'Courier New'"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Some posters mistakingly believe that western embassies are sheltering wounded protestors in Tehran, except Canada. I've looked into this ...</b></span></font></p> <p>[<a href="http://twitter.com/MinJK/status/2270960269" rel="nofollow">Tweet at 1843 Sunday night</a>] ... <font size="4" face="'Courier New'"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>and its completely untrue. Canada has contacted all relevant embassies in Tehran to enquire. None are doing so: they can't.</b></span></font></p> </blockquote><p>Aside from the fact that Kenney is addressing an important public policy point, it's also, so far as I can tell, the first time a government minister has responded to some breaking news in a substantive way on Twitter.</p></blockquote> This shows the threat that Twitter poses to traditional media respectability. Blogs were criticized for it, and now it is event easier than ever to retweet an "unverified" source. Update: Minister uses Twitter to spread the word on Canada’s embassy in Iran:

Here’s Jason Kenney, Minister of Immigration of Citizenship making news on Twitter:

[Tweet at 1842 Sunday night] Some posters mistakingly believe that western embassies are sheltering wounded protestors in Tehran, except Canada. I’ve looked into this …

[Tweet at 1843 Sunday night] … and its completely untrue. Canada has contacted all relevant embassies in Tehran to enquire. None are doing so: they can’t.

Aside from the fact that Kenney is addressing an important public policy point, it’s also, so far as I can tell, the first time a government minister has responded to some breaking news in a substantive way on Twitter.

This shows the threat that Twitter poses to traditional media respectability. Blogs were criticized for it, and now it is event easier than ever to retweet an “unverified” source.

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