The Year's Best Twitter Hoaxes

Hamza Kashgari, 23, tweeted that he wants to talk to Mohammed as a 'friend'

(NEWSER) - Islamists are calling for the execution of a young Saudi Arabian who tweeted last week about the Prophet Mohammed. "I have loved the rebel in you, you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me," Hamza Kashgari, 23, wrote in a tweet addressed to Mohammed. But "I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,” he added. "I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more." His tweets triggered more than 30,000 responses in a single day, many of them from enraged Saudis calling for his death. Kashgari has since deleted his Twitter account, and apologized, but his home address was posted on YouTube and vigilantes have been hunting him at his mosque, reports the Daily Beast . More»

Employees awkwardly encourage you to apply for a job

(NEWSER) - Twitter wants YOU to "Join the Flock Today," the company says in a new—and intentionally awful—recruitment video. The video is a send-up of other, often cringe-inducing, help-wanted videos, and it features employees uttering awkward lines like, "Boy, I wish I didn't already work here so I could apply for a job!" Writes David Gianatasio at AdWeek , "This clip hits the bull's-eye, especially since the target is presumably in sync with the microblogging firm's corporate mindset and attuned to silly humor." More»

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?"

Dissidents fear losing free-speech tool

(NEWSER) - Twitter's controversial decision to allow censorship of tweets on a country-by-country basis has won praise from two of the countries with the busiest censors. In Thailand—ranked 153rd in the world for press freedom because of its strict laws against offending the monarchy—the country's information minister called the move a "welcome development," adding that the government has already received "good co-operation" from Google and Facebook. Thais can be jailed just for clicking "like" on a page deemed offensive to the monarchy, the Guardian notes. More»

Republican candidate wanted to sue over phony video

(NEWSER) - An imposter who claims to represent Ron Paul's campaign is beyond the reach of the law—at least for now. Last week a federal judge denied Paul's campaign the right to unmask “NHLiberty4Paul," a YouTube user who posted a video accusing former Republican candidate Jon Huntsman of being a Chinese agent. The video concludes with an endorsement from Paul. NHLiberty4Paul is also a Twitter handle that has posted several derogatory remarks about Huntsman, Mashable reports. More»