Tweeter Beware - Backlash of Politicians tweets

Here is an interesting article from Foreign Policy: www.foreignpolicy.com...
It's lists a number of politicians tweets and the fallout to them. Here are some of my favourites:

GEORGE LEPP

The tweeter: Candidate for provincial parliament in Niagara Falls, Canada, from the Progressive Conservative Party.

The tweet: A close-up photo of a man's genitals.

The fallout: One thing is known for sure in the scandal some are calling the Canadian Weinergate: For about 20 minutes on the night of Saturday, May 28, the lewd photo appeared on Lepp's Twitter account before it was noticed by his son, who administers the feed, and taken down. (Not before it was obtained by the Toronto Sun, however.) A spokesman for Lepp's party initially seemed to suggest that the photo had been taken inadvertently while his cell phone was on camera mode in his front pocket.

Lepp and the Conservatives later denied this implausible explanation, saying instead that his phone had been stolen by attendees at an anime convention that was being held in the same hotel where he was giving a speech. (Despite the theft of his phone and the posting of the photos, however, Lepp never contacted the police.) Lepp says he is now trying to move on with his campaign, though it might be wise to let his son vet all outgoing tweets from here on out.

This next one is rather stupid but not as stupid as the backlash. While this guy posted a moronic comment on twitter, he definetely should have not been arrested for hate speech. Freedom of speech anyone? Not in Britain.

GARETH COMPTON

The tweeter: British councilor for Erdington in the Birmingham city government.

The tweet: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really. #R5L"

The fallout: The Tory councilor posted this comment in Nov. 2010 after listening to a Radio 5 Live (R5L) interview with Alibhai-Brown, a prominent newspaper columnist, in which she argued that any British politician who supported the Iraq war lacked the moral authority to criticize human rights abuses in other countries. Compton quickly deleted the comment, describing it as an "ill-conceived attempt at humour." But Alibhai, a Muslim of Indian descent, was not satisfied with Compton's apology, describing his initial remark as "incitement to murder" and "racially motivated." Compton was arrested on charges of hate speech and suspended from the Conservative Party.

Perhaps he should have listened to his party leader, now Prime Minister David Cameron, who warned in 2009 that "The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it -- too many twits might make a twat." (Actually, Cameron had to apologize for that comment as well.)

PAUL KAGAME

The tweeter: President of Rwanda

The tweets:

@ianbirrell: No-one in media, UN or human rights groups has the moral right to criticise me, says despotic & deluded @PaulKagame on.ft.com...

@ianbirrell: Kagame refused to even answer if he is a religious believer. When asked, he replied 'Yes and no.'

@paulkagame: @ianbirrell. Not you either...no moral right! You give yourslf the right to abuse pple and judge them like you r the one to decide ...

@paulkagame: @ianbirrell....and determine universally what s right or wrong and what shd be believed or not!!! Wrong u r ...u have no such right ..

The fallout: The Rwandan president may not quite have realized what he was getting himself into when he engaged in a back and forth on his controversial human rights record with British journalist Ian Birrell. The heated exchange was an almost unprecedented interaction between a journalist and a sitting head of state. Birrell repeatedly pressed Kagame to explain why he thought human rights groups had no right to criticize him and the president continually countered that Birrell's understanding of the human rights situation in Rwanda was flawed. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo also got into the discussion, sticking up for her boss.

At the end of the discussion Birrell concluded, "It is great @PaulKagame engaging with a critic like me on Twitter. Just shame he doesn't allow such debate in Rwanda with his own people."