Twitter is the medium about what's happening RIGHT NOW. In before you would open the TV or the radio to get information about what's happening right now but these days many people would look at Titter to get information about "RIGHT NOW". It could be mundane things about the lives of other people or it could be an event that's affecting large number of people. If something is happening, there would be reports of observations and there would be statements from people in position of making statements.

I don't really think that a state should run a service about what's happening right now but I think that Twitter is invaluable service to the public that needs to be dealt with carefully.

Twitter's power is well beyond the power of displaying ads to users and the only failing thing is the business of displaying ads to users in exchange for money. Twitter's core function is strong, it's not a failing product.

Arguably it's a medium for unimportant things happening right now. anecdotal but I see maybe 1% useful tweets and 99% garbage.

The TV is also criticised for low quality content but still it is a fundamental medium and the way it is managed is regarded as a basic benchmark for democracies.

So of it isnt twitter. We can agree that we as a society need a social sounding board.

I would second this argument. I quit Twitter about two years ago after realizing that I mostly don't care about the things that are "happening right now" according to Twitter.

You've never used it in a crisis situation then. I've used it to be better informed about several hurricanes near me, political developments, a possible nuclear facility problem affecting family, the Tohuku earthquake, the Macondo well blowout, and numerous other things.

Twitter has been a prime source of first-hand real-time information in many many crises. Just because you haven't used it that way doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Perhaps you should curate your feeds a bit better.

This is like saying "the library sucks, most of their books are totally irrelevant to me"-- on Twitter, you curate your own feed.

Before tv or radio, there were telegraphs, and before that, there were newspapers. News traveled at the speed of horses and the stamina of riders.

I would argue that the immediacy of information comes at the cost of deliberation and the moderation that encourages. I'm not sure the result is a net gain.

I'll say this is the only reason I've really stayed with Twitter. And it's not about the "right now" everywhere else but in my own neighborhood. If I hear a bunch of fire engines or helicopters lingering around, it's usually faster to go to Twitter and search my neighborhood to see what's going on than wait for it to be picked up by local news, if it is at all. You still have to use your brain to try and sort the signal from the noise.

Twitter is useless. Nothing would occur to the US or world if Twitter would shut-down today.