Confessions of a Twitter Addict

It involves whining about a sandwich

(NEWSER) - How to be an ace tweeter? Megan Garber at the Atlantic pores over a new study and starts her lesson with what not to do. This would be "The Most Annoying Tweet Imaginable":

• "BREAKING: Last week I had a #sandwich that was SO HORRIBLE, it made me want to #scream. Seriously, why can't they make better #sandwiches?"

Lamar Smith seems unfazed by powerful opponents to piracy bill

(NEWSER) - Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the fiercely controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, doesn't sound like he's bothered much by the heated opposition from e-powerhouses such as Facebook, Google, Reddit, and Twitter. "It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don't want to protect American consumers and businesses," the Texas Republican tells Reuters . The SOPA bill, which would authorize the government to seek federal injunctions against foreign-based websites suspected of piracy, is still in committee hearings and could reach the House floor in a few weeks. More»

News Corp CEO deletes tweet about British holidays

(NEWSER) - Rupert Murdoch's big Twitter debut hasn't gone too smoothly, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The chief executive of News Corporation joined Twitter less than 48 hours ago and started with a message that he quickly deleted: "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!"—which he wrote while holidaying in the Caribbean. His wife, who also seems to have joined Twitter , reacted with: "RUPERT!! delete tweet!!" More»

That's what one company suing an ex-worker thinks

(NEWSER) - Do a company's Twitter followers belong to the firm, or to the employee doing the tweeting—and how much is each follower worth? The questions are at the heart of a lawsuit in South Carolina, report AP and the New York Times : An online tech review firm is suing a former employee who ran a company Twitter account. When Noah Kravitz left PhoneDog, he changed the name on the account and kept its 17,000 followers. The company says Kravitz owes it $2.50 per follower over 8 months, amounting to $340,000. More»

It's up to parents to insist on civil disagreement: Ruth Marcus

(NEWSER) - There's something wrong with a world in which Emma Sullivan , the 18-year-old high school student who refused to apologize to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback after tweeting that he "sucked," is turned into a "heroine of the liberal blogosphere," writes Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post —adding that Sullivan should be glad she's not Marcus' daughter, because Marcus would have made her apologize and taken away her smartphone. Sure, Sullivan has First Amendment rights, but "parents are not bound by constitutional constraints." More»