Twitter stalking goes mainstream

ABC spying on PM’s Twitter for news stories – how very dare they

There have been a lot of rather precious claims made by Twitter users lately that their publicly viewable tweets should not be reproduced elsewhere (like on someone’s blog) and held up to mockery, ridicule or criticism. Some Twitterers have even said that just looking at the tweets amounts to stalking or, at the very least, an obsessive mindset. For some reason they seem to think this particular stream of the Internet should be ‘hands off’ and those not on their following list should just stay away. Yeah right, like we shouldn’t read anyone’s blog comments unless we’re registered either?

Well, it appears they have been proven wrong, unless of course they think the ABC is also engaging in cyber stalking.

This ABC ‘news story’  (and I do use that term lightly) not only republishes and mocks PM Kevin Rudd’s tweets, it also republishes the tweets of many other people who are following him, and, according to some people’s logic and dubious moral code,  that means the ABC is not only ’stalking’ Mr Rudd, it’s also stalking all those followers. What a cheek, the ABC is clearly obsessed!

My advice to anyone who does not want strangers reading their tweets is simply this:

For Christ’s sake, it’s in the public domain and you put it there; either harden up or switch to the ‘protected’ mode.