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Twitter Helps Chinese Blogger Tell His Story

Citizen journalist is forced to leave Beijing, but he plans to return

By Sam Biddle,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 14, 2008 8:06 PM CDT

(Newser) – Twitter gets a bad rap for its often less-than-substantive musings, but every now and then the service proves its "true potential" as an Internet tool, writes Mathew Ingram in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Case in point: When a Chinese citizen journalist recently traveled to Beijing, the authorities hustled him out of the city on false pretenses. Fellow Twitterers picked up his story and translated his posts.

"A fascinating story—or at least the core of a fascinating story—and all told entirely via Twitter," writes Ingram. "The 'first draft of history' indeed."

This undated screen shot shows Twitter, a short-message social networking site. Chinese blogger Zhou Zhuola Shuguang used Twitter to write from the Olympic games in Beijing. (AP Photo)
This undated screen shot shows Twitter, a short-message social networking site. Chinese blogger Zhou "Zhuola" Shuguang used Twitter to write from the Olympic games in Beijing. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
Police in Beijing have detained a Chinese blogger in an apparent move to bar him from covering the Olympics.
Police in Beijing have detained a Chinese blogger in an apparent move to bar him from covering the Olympics.   (Getty Images)
Police in Beijing have detained a Chinese blogger in an apparent move to bar him from covering the Olympics.
Police in Beijing have detained a Chinese blogger in an apparent move to bar him from covering the Olympics.   (Getty Images)
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