
There’s nowhere to hide if your name trends on Twitter. Is there, Trafigura? - alexandros
http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/10/13/theres-nowhere-to-hide-if-your-name-trends-on-twitter-is-there-trafigura/
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kierank
What this article seems to portray is that retweeting is the same as marching
in front of Parliament. The fact is in spite of the heavy retweeting, although
it gained the attention of people for a short time, its actual impact is not
much more than #MUSICmonday or #Followfriday. The idea that changing the world
happens by copy and pasting is something ridiculous - look at Iran for
example. I fear that social change over social networks will just be style
over substance, further adding to the soundbite culture we live in.

It's good that such an issue is brought into the limelight but the fact is on
twitter with just 140 characters there's such a detachment to the realities of
a serious issue that it all becomes trivial.

~~~
danw
> The fact is in spite of the heavy retweeting, although it gained the
> attention of people for a short time, its actual impact is not much more
> than #MUSICmonday or #Followfriday

Normally yes, but in this case it nudged other news outlets such as the BBC to
report on the story and prompted a debate in Parliament on if these gag orders
are too easy to abuse. I would say that's some positive outcome, even if it
does little to help those who were affected by the toxic waste.

~~~
kierank
_Normally yes, but in this case it nudged other news outlets such as the BBC
to report on the story_

The BBC reported about the Trafigura case in depth on Newsnight* many weeks
ago. Inevitably journalists would have had to mention it as it's something
affecting their profession.

*One of the few good news programmes around in my opinion along with World Service news.

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axod
Yes! Twitter has singlehandedly changed the game! Before twitter, people
didn't communicate online. And you couldn't leak stuff and have it indexed by
google.

Of course now everyone, law firms, governments, corporations monitor twitter
all day, and base policies and legal precedents on what is trending and what
isn't.

It's only a matter of time until we do away with the outdated elections and
vote using hashtags.

~~~
unalone
What do you get out of snarking towards things that really aren't worth
snarking towards? There is no live search as valuable as Twitter's. Google
doesn't do live search. Stop making up shit that the article said and then
making fun of it, especially when so many TechCrunch articles _are_ saying
stupid shit.

~~~
req2
Though you say google doesn't do live search, it took less than 18 minutes for
it to get this post.

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-
US%3Aofficial&hs=sm6&q=%22techcrunch+articles+are+saying+stupid+shit%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)

~~~
unalone
It indexes quickly, but that's not live search. I can't pick a name and see
what people around the world are saying about it. Google's just never designed
anything to do that. Twitter has. So while the Internet's existed for a while,
this live feedback has not.

~~~
axod
Difference is, twitter is often far less useful, since it doesn't have any
notion of trustworthiness (yet). No PageRank. (Although afaik they're working
on something like that). Also automated tweets are more of a problem than with
Google. (PageRank also does well to get rid of the automated spam)

The trending tags on twitter just mean lots of people re-tweeted something.
It's the equivalent of emails that say you should forward it to 100 friends to
get good luck. In this case it was "You should be outraged by this, re-tweet
it!". But the effect is the same.

Or it could just be twitter bots doing the retweeting.

~~~
kierank
_The trending tags on twitter just mean lots of people re-tweeted something.
It's the equivalent of emails that say you should forward it to 100 friends to
get good luck. In this case it was "You should be outraged by this, re-tweet
it!". But the effect is the same._

That's a very good comparison in fact.

~~~
diego
Not necessarily. There is a lot of talk about Trafigura that's not just
retweets. Check out our charts:

<http://trendistic.com/trafigura/carter-ruck/_24-hours>

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aw3c2
So what. Some random facts: The CIA did very bad things in Guatemala, Shell
did very bad things in Nigeria, Nestle did very bad things in Venezuela. Those
are just 3 small examples. Many people know. But nothing happens.

Twitter is not going to change the world. You have to take action.

~~~
Periodic
Twitter is good for feeling like you're taking action. Every tweet can be its
own mini-protest. Only I expect that a bunch of people chatting on the
Internet is a lot less menacing than picketers, rallies and demonstrations.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
In the past people chuntered under their breath .. now they tweet: difference
to political process, none.

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DannoHung
I'm a little confused on the story behind this since I originally read it:
Trafigura dumped toxic waste and tried to reach a settlement regarding the
dumpage. There was something that happened in Parliament and for some reason
the Guardian wasn't allowed to write about the actions in Parliament because
of a gag order.

If someone could be so kind as to answer the following questions:

Why was this in Parliament?

What was the question about this in Parliament?

Who requested the gag order?

Under what precedent was the gag order issued?

Would the courts likely have upheld the gag after an initial hearing?

~~~
bonaldi
1\. An MP tabled a question about the affair to be asked on Thursday.

2\. See here [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/trafigura-
carter...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/trafigura-carter-ruck-
gag)

3\. Carter-Ruck, on behalf of Trafigura

4\. An injunction prevents publication on any number of grounds, usually
pending ongoing legal cases

5\. An appeal -- the Guardian were set to appeal this afternoon until Carter-
Ruck pulled out -- would almost certainly have gone in the Guardian's favour.
But had the Guardian published before the injunction was lifted, the courts
would definitely have upheld a prosecution against them, however.

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chaosprophet
Still taking potshots at Sam Sethi and UK Laws... Nothing less could be
expected of Techcrunch, I guess...

~~~
kierank
He never mentioned anything about Sam Sethi. UK libel laws are a serious
issue.

~~~
chaosprophet
I was reading between the lines I guess...

