An Oklahoma man Twittered about fighting and killing police, and was arrested for it.
From his most recent, pre-arrest feed:
One way of understanding this in terms of the fearsome internet is as a descendant of the digital terrorist theme. That reaches back into the 1990s (remember militias?), then advances to the 2000s' e-Qaeda meme.
Another approach concerns the building narrative about Twitter as a scary place (or service, or object). We've already noted some examples: scary people following you, or whom you can follow; a suicide threat; "ghost Twitterers" (authorship, not ectoplasm). All of these are classic scary-technology themes: stalking, suicide, dubious authorship, communications from the dead. Now we can add e-terror. No one theme has emerged as the leading fearsome-Twitter meme, so we're probably seeing a gestation period now. Perhaps this summer will see some major meme emerge.
(via MetaFilter)
"START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!," read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!," he added five minutes later. Then: "Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps."
From his most recent, pre-arrest feed:
One way of understanding this in terms of the fearsome internet is as a descendant of the digital terrorist theme. That reaches back into the 1990s (remember militias?), then advances to the 2000s' e-Qaeda meme.
Another approach concerns the building narrative about Twitter as a scary place (or service, or object). We've already noted some examples: scary people following you, or whom you can follow; a suicide threat; "ghost Twitterers" (authorship, not ectoplasm). All of these are classic scary-technology themes: stalking, suicide, dubious authorship, communications from the dead. Now we can add e-terror. No one theme has emerged as the leading fearsome-Twitter meme, so we're probably seeing a gestation period now. Perhaps this summer will see some major meme emerge.
(via MetaFilter)
Could this be the next fearsome-Twitter meme?
Twitter Considered Harmful To Swine-Flu Panic [Slashdot]
It looks like a new differentiation in the fearsome-internet collection because now 'old' new media corps are trustworthy, as opposed to the runaway wild-fire gossip of Twitter with its 'decontextualised misinformation'.
Posted by: joe | April 28, 2009 at 03:14
I think you're right, joe. Good catch. Will cite you in the next post.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | May 01, 2009 at 15:18