What is your opinion of Twitter?

[sabrina 1]

30. Well it's clear you are not familiar with it, so let me explain. I follow credible journalists,

many of them foreign correspondents, people on the ground in various war zones around the world. They tweet what is actually happening in real time, way before their own reports even get to their news desks. During the Arab Spring eg, before the MSM even began covering it, reports were coming from people, some foreign journalists, AL Jazeera eg had people on the ground there, about a very important developing story before it became news in this country.

In one of my OPs, eg, I posted a plea for help from someone on the ground in Egypt, not certain if it was reliable, but just in case I posted it anyhow. It was a plea to the international community to prevent Mubarak from shutting down the internet. As it turned out, that was true and as a result of Twitter and many others like me who reposted it, Twitter and other social media networks were able to provide a way for the revolutionaries to continue communicating with the rest of the world after Mubarak did actually shut down the internet. You can check my journal from over a year ago if you need confirmation.

Same thing with Tunisia. Following journalists who were there giving minute by minute accounts of what was happening, and retweeting the info to followers, including MSM journalists here, made it impossible for them to claim they did not know what was going on.

As I said, you have to know how to use it and millions around the world did use it to help topple two dictators, in Tunisia and Egypt. Iraq's Arab Spring however, never made it to the MSM. Those protests were quashed by the puppet government there and hundreds jailed while others were murdered. But thanks to Twitter at least we know it happened. Our MSM never reported it.

Israel's version of the Arab Spring also went unreported by our MSM, but it was reported on Twitter. Reporters from Al Jazeera and other foreign media have been present at all these events and since I follow many of them, I do know when events of importance are happening.

To say that Twitter is unreliable, means you do not know how to use it. It is reliable if you follow only credible people and double check what you see there. In the Libya situation eg, there were many phony 'rebels' on Twitter all of whom disappeared as soon as NATO got what they wanted. But most of us who initially thought it was a genuine revolution, had already figured out the fake 'rebels' by then.