Social networking is becoming a part of everyday life, however although we see the likes of Twitter and Facebook as a way to network with old and new friends, it would appear that recent attention in media has suggested that it has started to get a little out of hand.
Facebook so far has come under a lot of scrutiny for the reason people are getting divorced or being bullied, however on December 1st a shooting between two men in Harlem, New York sparked allegation that an argument on Twitter resulted in the fatal murder of Kwame Dancy.
According to a newspaper report, the New York police showed Tweets as evidence in the case to suggest that there had been rivalry between the accused Jameg Blake and the victim on Twitter.
The NY Daily News writes, ‘It started as a simple Twitter beef, 140-character spurts of anger by two young men who grew up together’ and ‘A police source said the messages may be subpoenaed to bolster the theory that there was bad blood between the two old pals.’
It is not clear about how important the evidence on the tweets is to the case but with the news filtering across various newspapers it would seem that the media have latched onto the angle to show the negative impact of social networking.
However, I am a great fan of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and believe that they’re merely there to provide a service but it is up to Twitterers or Facebookers how they decide to use it. My heart goes out to the murdered victim and his family however let’s not use social networking sites as a scapegoat when things go wrong.
What do you think? Do you think it is Twitter’s responsibility to stop this activity from occurring? Leave us a comment and let us know.
3 thoughts on “Twitter Argument Leads to Murder: Have the Media Gone Too Far?”
If it wasnt twitter it woulda been myspace if not myspace it woulda been email if not email it woulda been a cell if not a cell it woulda a pager then a call from a pay phone… twitter doesnt cause stupid people to act stupid.. stupid people are able to do that all on their own.
Definitely have to agree with you there.
I think we should stop making the habit of blaming new technology for everything bad in the world!
In my opinion, it is not twitter’s responsibility but the users themselves.