Twitter should suspend the entire platform until they can credibly fix this and prevent it in the future. An attacker could drop AMZN stock by 10% in minutes with just the wrong tweet from Bezos.
If Trump would tweet what the fringe communities want to hear (example: Trump tweets that state law enforcement have started rounding up people with Hawaii shirts and confiscating their weapons and should be seen as enemy combatants and engaged on sight. That would turn ugly very quickly).
A well crafted tweet about e.g the Taliban could easily put US soldiers abroad in harms way immediately too.
And everyone in government will quickly conclude that they can't allow this to happen.
This could be the beginning of the end of social media.
Please, God, I beg you, let this happen.
More than relates, it is the doing.
"Justice Department lawyer Jennifer Utrecht in her reply acknowledged the president’s tweets are official government statements"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/can-presid...
Well armed militia who don’t offer diplomatic representation — they are the ones to worry about.
(Also POTUS is not authorized to declare any wars btw.)
He has fired people over twitter [0] so I'm not sure the scope of one can do there is limited to "marketing/propaganda"
> (Also POTUS is not authorized to declare any wars btw.)
Other nations are not going to read the US law first before deciding if the declaration was or not real.
[0] https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/13/17113950/trump-state-depa...
All we have here is an announcement. Seriously doubt this was the "official" firing, hiring or promoting of anyone. The statement in the article isn't even from Tillerson, so we don't really know.
> Other nations are not going to read the US law first before deciding if the declaration was or not real
There's a lot more formality to declaring war, for any nation. Not to mention the lack of anything else to support such a statement, like an actual press conference or public statements, media attention or, you know, actual military movement which all capable nations track constantly.
"Dear Twitter Followers, It is with grave heart that I have to ask you to do the right thing for your country, go out and do something about - insert bogeyman of the hour here - and I will be sure to reward you greatly. The time has come to do your part. I personally promise to pardon anybody that ends up on the wrong side of what today still is the law. Let's take this country and make it even greater."
That's just a two minute sample, give me an hour or so and I'll come up with something much worse than that. These things are easier to start than to stop.
No nation is going to start killing people because of a Tweet. Be realistic.
It detracts from your otherwise valid points when paranoia and blind hatred overshadow your arguments.
The number of posts you've made about the leader of a foreign nation is astonishing. Are there zero domestic problems to be fired up about?
> You again?
I guess I could say the same. Touché.
While true, this effectively doesn't matter given the number of people we've bombed since our last declaration of war in 1942 [0].
[0] https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_a...
> Iran has gone TOO FAR! As President I have ordered the use of nuclear weapons against key military targets. We begin bombing in five minutes.
Regardless of the plausibility of the message, it would be likely to trigger a panicked response from foreign militaries. It's not at all implausible that it'd start a war.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_begin_bombing_in_five_minut...
I mean, when is the last time we officially declared war? It has to have been decades ago.
See here:
https://twitter.com/asculthorpe/status/1283531636450230274
@TheRegister (verified) just RT'd for help.
Hell, even just hacking Trump to do it would probably trigger a federal investigation. I doubt this current situation will.
I'm not so sure about that. Sure, it didn't impact THE account or crash the stock of an unaffiliated company, but that proverbial bullet flew close and I bet that quite a few powerful people felt the wind. The "harmless" nature might spare the hackers a bit, but it definitely won't spare Twitter.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor...