Chapter 4

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Background

Twitter has been described by many (these authors included) as the “wild, wild west” of social media. Since its March 2006 inception, Twitter has generated millions of daily tweets. 1 No fact checking or sourcing is required before a user tweets. There are no rules, no moderators to oversee trending topics or discussions among users. Users moderate each other. Tweets fall under the constitutional umbrella of freedom of speech. Rumors spread quickly. Celebrity deaths are among the most consistent and persistent falsities. In December 2011, Jon Bon Jovi reacted to Twitter chatter he had died of a heart attack by tweeting this photo.

Twitter:

Facebook:

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8835959&l=d39bc9b4a2&id=7220821999 ...

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