The Price of a Tweet
By now, we all have seen the image sent by Democratic New York Congressman Anthony Weiner just a few weeks ago, to a Texas woman, using YFrog, a photo-sharing client tied to his Twitter account. The single photo of his crotch area in boxer shorts, shared not only with the woman but now with the whole world will likely destroy his career, and has led to revelations he was involved in a total of six inappropriate relationships online. The scope of his behavior may possibly even end his marriage.
Weiner, however, is not alone in having suffered some level of punishment, job loss and even lasting public embarrassment due to his antics on the popular social network.
Courtney Love just might hold the record for the most expensive financial loss due to her Twitter behavior, after tweeting in 2009 that clothing designer Dawn Simorangkir was an “a**wipe nasty lying hosebag thief,” as well as a “drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery.”
Of course, Simorangkir did not take a liking to being called out in this manner by someone with so many followers on Twitter. She sued for defamation, and Love settled out of court, reportedly for $430,000.
A far less expensive variety of punishment was doled down to Fahmi Fadzil of Malaysia, who tweeted that his pregnant friend had been treated poorly by her employer, Female Magazine. Despite removing the status message and issuing a formal online apology, he was court ordered to send 100 tweets laden with apologizes to Female Magazine. This likely felt punishing as well to his followers, who by the way have increased in number by 1,000 since the unusual verdict was handed down.
Seems we all like a bad boy...
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