Post date: May 21, 2011 by Neil Palmer
Privacy and The Internet: Can We Stop Twitter Trends?
Trying to stop the steam-roller of exposure that is known as a Twitter Trend is seemingly impossible. The super-injunction which Ryan Giggs took out [over allegations of an extra-marital affair] has again raised question over the enforcement of Judgements by the High Court.
Concerns lie with not with stopping Newspapers, TV and Radio disclosing the names of those involved, but with preventing a leak being spread across the Internet like wild fire. As soon as the general public picked up on the ‘Ryan Giggs Sues Twitter’ suggestion, they obviously figured he has something to hide.
The ensuing blitz of posts repeating the phrase “Ryan Giggs is suing twitter. I can’t Imogen why” is surely not going to be something which the Manchester United player has any control over. Asking Twitter to disclose the names of those leaking the information has now put a little egg on the face of the Cardiff born 37 year old. When there are 10,000 posts with the same Tweet, what chance have you got of stopping those determined with exposing information on private lives?
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Original Post On Saturday 21st May:
Today has seen a surge of people Tweeting the following phrase: “Ryan Giggs is suing twitter. I can’t Imogen why”. The strange tweet has been posted by over 100 people, with no apparent reason for the Tweet.
‘Twitter Trends’ as they are labelled by the social networking platform, offer Twitterers the chance to see what the popular news, gossip or sporting events are making the headlines. It’s a kind of surging tag cloud, where dynamic updates are applied to the most Tweeted phrases.
Today it’s clear to see that the Trends are current and timely, just the sort of activity that search engines love to see. In the top 10 right now are #endoftheworldconfessions (as there is religious talk that today is the last day we are going to be alive), and #AFCWimbledon who were today promoted from the Football league (congratualtions).
Here at iM3 we are so busy optimising websites that we have no idea what the Ryan Giggs tweets are about, but one thing is for sure, when something is popular you’ll find it first on Twitter.
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Last modified: May 23, 2011
