Coup d'etat on Twitter

The Spanish site Per Soitu reports about a fascinating example of "fake authenticity" and the emerging trend of using Twitter for storytelling.

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Matt Webb pointed out in his LIFT presentation today that humans “take pleasure in watching things unfold.” True – even if the events are a quasi-authentic account of something that has already happened.

Coincidentally, the Spanish site Per Soitu reports about a fascinating example of “fake authenticity” and the emerging trend of using Twitter for storytelling. On February 23, 2009, exactly 28 years after about 200 soldiers and paramilitary members of the Spanish Civil Guard toppled remnants of General Franco's dictatorship, a group of Spanish Twitterers revived minute by minute the historical coup d'etat that occurred on February 23, 1981. During Franco's fascist government all cultural activities were subject to censorship, and many were plainly forbidden on various grounds (political or moral).

We’ll see more of this "instant" rewriting and reliving of history. Twitter is perfectly suited to translate historical narratives into the realm of social real-time presence.

 

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About the author

    Tim Leberecht is Frog Design's chief marketing officer. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

     

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