Posts Tagged "Twitter"

Libertarian Party threatens Libel against Hadleigh Roberts

M’learned friends, we all know that I am not somebody who does things by halves. Once again, I have entered a conflict through the Internet.

Indeed, like the last time such an event as this occured on Youtube in the case of Hadleigh Roberts vs. nobnp4uk.

If it please the court, we shall now discuss the case of Libertarian Party vs. Hadleigh Roberts.

The first piece of evidence, nay, the remarks at the heart of this case, took place at 4:05 PM Jul 25 on Twitter, where Mr. Roberts (the defendant) wrote:

Hahah Norwich North. Just heard creepy libertarian kid got 36 votes!
4:05 PM Jul 25th

Then, a representative of the Libertarian Party, Henry North (whose real name is Rohen Kapur)  launched the following accusation:

Why is he creepy Do you want me to tell him so that he can get a libel case against you?
8:38 PM Jul 25th

Immediately afterwards, at 20:41, the following message was delivered from the plaintiff via the contact page on Mr. Roberts’ website, http://hadleigh.eu :

Come on then fess up  Whats so creepy about us?
Up until 1914 the British Political system was highly libertarian  So its not so long ago
Free trade existed in one quarter of the globe thanks to the British Empire
Is that creepy feeling getting worse yet?

It seems that the Libertarians don’t believe the state should control rules on punctuation or communication, as it curtails the individuals right to bang their skull on the keyboard.

Humouring “Mr. North”, Mr. Roberts replied:

I don’t think you can libel against an opinion. Not a very Libertarian thing to do either.
8:48 PM Jul 25th

So after this amusingly hypocritical accusation, the Libertarian substantiated the case:

Offense against the person, When not there to defend it… Libel Published word ( twitter is publishing) defaming person
10:39 PM Jul 25th

Again, never knowing when not to bother using rational argument, commented:

I can see the headlines now. “Libertarian Party claims libel after mouthy student in France calls candidate “creepy” on Twitter”
2:40 AM Jul 26th

Though I look forward to the amusing possibility of being extradited from France for calling somebody “creepy”, I can’t see it happening.

However, I am suitably flattered that a casual (and inoffensive) remark from me is enough to count as “defaming” someone. The candidate in question (whose name I don’t know) clearly lost a good deal of his reputation, which might seriously damage the whopping 36 votes he got in the Norwich North byelection.

So apart from regaining a massive blow to his popularity, the Libertarians have little to gain from all this. They certainly won’t be winning any money; as a student, I don’t have any apart from my recent paycheck of 300 Euros (not even the currency they want) and 50 Euros of that already went on Amazon.fr

I will also add further to the irony in that on his blog, “Henry North” calls a Labour party member a word beginning with C. Not “creepy”; a four letter word. How’s that for defamation? Even Clarkson got in trouble for that.

Still, I could use the publicity!

(PS. How long before the Libertarian trolls migrate to this blog and take this obvious, yet truthful, bait? Thanks for the extra hits, guys!)
Answer: 5 hours. Though my website was down for a few of those.

David Miliband and Michael Jackson, Tweet Tweet

You will have already heard the news of Michael Jackson’s death from sources other than myself. I had hoped to refrain from commenting as there won’t be any news in the story for a few weeks, though likewise there won’t be any other stories in the news.

Already in the top Guardian stories:

• Michael Jackson has died
• Police focus on doctor who was with Michael Jackson as he died
• Michael Jackson death: painkillers may have been factor

What did catch my eye though, was a statement from Twitter:

Immediately, there was an outcry on the Internet. “Why is Miliband commenting?” “Degradation of politics!” “As bad as Brown calling Susan Boyle!”

Calm down dear, it’s a hoax. The “real” Foreign Secretary later posted this on his blog:

The death of Michael Jackson is very sad news for his family, friends and fans.  My thoughts are with his family at this time.

But the instant Twitter put out in my name last night was not me.

Admittedly, this probably earned a great deal many more hits than his regular blog posts.

Really though, it goes to show how desperate the media is for any scraps of news on this pretty empty story (empty of details, not of significance, I hasten to add.) The press was all too keen to run with the story, not realising it was a joke until the Foreign Secretary’s next tweet:

CNN has basically become an mj-only version of mtv!

This is why I am glad it’s a hoax, for I don’t want the Foreign Secretary A) to get his news from CNN and B) to have any idea what MTV is.

Another non-story then, though still people persit with inane show-off comments on DM’s blog.

S0 what better excuse to add this little piece of self-promotion?

Back to the Facebook

Well, I’m back on Facebook, after a week-and-a-bit.

I was originally hoping to extend my Facebook holiday to the entire month of May, were it not for a few people asking me to do things that required the site. Nevertheless, my essays are done and I did learn a thing or two from my experience:

- People are bitter. On Saturday I responded to a comment on this website which required the use of Facebook; since I was under no contractual or religious obligation to stay away, I decided to honour the request. I doubt I was particularly “missed” but the result was a few snide comments like “I thought you were giving up Facebook?”

It was as if they were hoping I would “fail” my little experiment. I’d apparently disrupted the social consensus that everybody has to love Facebook and be on it for an hour a day, it seemed that this deviation was unnerving to them. The response was hardly “Yes we can.”

- The next thing is that people still don’t get Twitter. I have a simple function that when I post something to Twitter, Facebook automatically picks it up and uses it for a Status Update. I find it convenient as I don’t tweet too often to make it spammy. It was assumed that I was logging in to update my status; they decided not to see the “via Twitter” small print.

- However, I have discovered a new relationship with FB. For me, it’s like a huge Yellow Pages. If you ignore all the chitchat and groups and distractions, it’s a pretty useful tool.

Conclusion: I doubt I’ll be “checking” Facebook very often, but I will be using it as a sort of Big Brother database if I need to check up on you, as we’ve discussed before. It’s not going back on my blackberry. (If you need something, email. If you don’t have my email, find it on Facebook!

Though I will make a special mention of my bit of Facebook: If 1,000,000 People Join This Group, Nothing Will Change. It’s A Group

Blogging and Twitter

Leaving aside the confusion that I am going to twitter about blogging about twitter, it’s worth looking at my previous post explaining Twitter.

On my birthday (coincidentally), Tom Harris MP wrote a post asking whether “Twitter is more leftie than the blogosphere”. /

I ask this because when I check my Twitter feed, it tends to contain slightly less criticism of the government — in fact, less politics in general.

In fact, it’s almost certain that there is “less politics” due to the fact that on Twitter, the chatter is a lot more inane, “so-and-so is making a cup of tea” or “watching the Apprentice” as opposed to “such-and-such dislikes the third reading of the South West transport bill!”

Blogs are, in contrast, a more personal space. The chances are that like searches for like. Harris concludes that blogs are like dinner parties, while Twitter is like the pub. I’m certainly inclined to agree, based on my previous post.

Though, this should provide an opportunity, as blogs define themselves in the search for an identity. By having a space for “intellectual” (longer) thoughts, and a space for “who cares-ities” (“X is going to the shops!”) the two become more distinct.

The overlap would be the Livejournal; the internet diary. Many people use blogges to talk about their morning toast or their yoga lessons in more depth than the average tweet would allow.

We might even be rid of the “Hi. How are you?” “Hi. Didn’t you read my Twitter from 3 minutes ago?”

A tweet in the hand is worth two on the net

I’m on the blogosphere, I’m on the Facebook, I’m on the Blackberry and now I’m on the Twitter. The Twitter website was established all the way back in 2006, but in recent weeks the Twitterers have come home to roost, along with all the associated awful puns and weak metaphors.

The “deal” with Twitter, for any middle-aged readers who might wish to engage with one of the “young people” we hear so much about, is that it provides a forum in which you can post your least important thoughts, 140 characters at a time. Sceptics will say that Twitter is basically identical to Facebook, but with all the features removed except for the status updates. Instead of online friends whom you’ve never met, you now get ‘followers’.

The concept of followers is interesting; they are not stalkers, but it certainly makes any would-be stalker’s life a lot easier. Find your celebrity of choice, hopefully one that really wants to “engage with the youth” (politicians are probably best for this), follow them on Twitter, and then follow them in real life. If the terrorists get hold of Twitter, the west is doomed.

The reverse is also true, for all the furore over Britain becoming a Big Brother state, people seem to be more than willing to give up their personal information on Facebook. The police no longer need to invest millions in security cameras and CCTV; they just need to get a Twitter account. Fortunately for the libertarians, the only people anywhere near the British government who come close to understanding Twitter are Alastair Campbell and John Prescott, who like to advertise their own blogs rather than tell us when they’re making a cup of tea. Twitter seems perfectly suited for ‘proper news’ items, like when it snowed in Bath earlier this year and the University told us that lectures we cancelled. However, the meaning of news is notoriously flexible.

During President Obama’s State of the Union Address, it was revealed that Members of Congress were tweeting or twittering throughout with important information like “the best seats are reserved for the Senators”. A small number of MPs have tweeted in the middle of Prime Minister’s Questions. Surely, if someone is busy typing on their Smartphone while they are supposed to be listening to something, it means they are not paying attention, and advertising that very fact.

So Twitter has become very popular in media and political circles grasping for any sort of relevance. The problem is not that their ideas and thoughts are too complex, but that they jump on any sort of gimmick that lessens the credibility of institutions in desperate need of authority. Through descending to shorter and more inane chatter, they have confused new with good.   

I’ve often said that the process of blogging is like talking to an empty room. By comparison, Twitter can only be described as talking to a very crowded room, with everyone else talking at the same time, frantic to make their own voices heard.