Twitter sparked the Arab Spring; it helped Ahmadinejad cripple his political opponents; it gave a running commentary on the assault on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound; it enhances the Israeli military’s situational awareness; it is a medium for terror cells to communicate and recruit.
Twitter fuelled the anti-cuts protests in London; it allowed the Met Police to warn the public of the violent ‘Black Bloc’ tactics; it coordinated humanitarian relief in the wake of the Haitian earthquake and Pakistani floods; it is the favoured tool of the US State Department to monitor democratic opposition in authoritarian regimes. It is quicker to Tweet than call 999 and, as Ryan Giggs can testify, Twitter has now outstripped UK law. And it does all this in 140 characters.
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