TWEETING:
THE NEW WARFARE OF THE WORLD

         What is a warfare? A warfare is the means used in a war between two or more than two parties. Over the time immemorial, covering thousands of years and centuries we have heard about different kinds of warfare used in Wars.  Some examples drawn, starting from ancient times are; Body Fight (including Hand Fight), Animal Fights (using Animals as warfare), Stones, Sticks and Swords, Arms and Ammunition covering Physical Warfare (Bayonets, Rifles, Pistols, Guns, Bullets, Tanks, Cannons, Mortars, Missiles, Fighter Aircrafts, Warships, Submarines etc. ), Chemical Warfare (Chemical Bombs and Hazardous Chemicals), Biological Warfare (different harmful organisms and micro-organisms used in war), Nuclear Devices (Nuclear Bombs and War Heads ).

Another Warfare as per historical records used from the ages, is the use of words in a war as the Warfare and it is the case of Ware of Words. It is the Warfare of Words. The Warfare of Words comprises of Words Combined with Images. The use of Words along with Images is a very powerful warfare. The Warfare of Words can provoke and flare up a War of Words, that can get into use of other Warfare of different types described above. The Warfare of Words can also help in cooling down and concluding a War Situation, leading to peace, it has also been empirically observed. The Warfare of Words used to be deployed through various Media of Communication, such as Spoken Media ( Word of Mouth ), Written and Printed Media ( including Press Media, News Papers, Books and Magazines  ), Audio ( includes loud speakers and Telephones ), Visual Media ( Slides, Films, Video Phones ), Electronic Media  (such as Radio and Television), the Modern day Social Media by using electronic instruments and internet such as  Messenger and Microblogging platforms, such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Instagram and Twitter etc. The Social Media today is the potential Warfare of Words. All these media for Warfare of Words are inter-lapping and overlapping, I have not done any watertight compartments of classification, I have tried to classify as examples only, no confusion should be about it.

Let us see how TWITTER has now reached the status of a Warfare for the War of Words. The tweets being made through the Microblogging Site TWITTER, in the present day’s Social Media are seriously working as the New Warfare of the World. The Twitter allows 140 characters of text can be sent in one message which is named as Tweet. A sender can send a number of tweets of 140 characters with documents and images attached along with a tweet. The Twitter platform has facilities to transmit Documents and Images as well. However, the 140 Characters messages with Documents and Images attached, the Tweets, are creating a kind of havoc ( in terms of War of Words ) in the World, in fact having potential to create strong War of Words.

 “Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface or its mobile-device application software ("app"), though the service could also be accessed via SMS before April 2020. Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017. Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts.

Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. By 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of Q1 2019, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users. Twitter is a some-to-many microblogging service, given that the vast majority of tweets are written by a small minority of users.”  

Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. The original project code name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The decision was also partly due to the fact that the domain twitter.com was already in use, and it was six months after the launch of twttr that the crew purchased the domain and changed the name of the service to Twitter. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability". Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twttr". Dorsey has explained the origin of the "Twitter" title:

...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was.

The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees. The full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006. In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo, together with its assets — including Odeo.com and Twitter.com — from the investors and shareholders. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011. Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview:

…..With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.  

                [ Source of this part, as above in smaller fonts: Wikipedia as on 06-Feb-2021 ]

The evidence drawn and placed above shows that Twitter was created, precisely, as a faster, short SMS kind of messaging platform for communication among groups of people at one stroke. It is interesting that the Logo of Twitter is the image looking like a Bird and more akin to a “Pigeon”.  In India, there is a belief, that in ancient times, when there was no other faster communication medium and the postal service to deliver the letters, the trained bird “Pigeon” was used to deliver letters, particularly “Love Letters“. To that extent, Twitter’s logo and context to deliver short messages is quite interesting and concurring to the purpose even when Indian legend regarding the “Pigeon” is concerned. The wide acceptance of Twitter to be used as a powerful communication platform, now Globally, is precisely, due the forced short size of messages ( short 140 character message, although allowed to be 280 characters for non-CJK languages) and its far and wide reach of audience of millions around the Globe within seconds ( very time efficient and time friendly messaging).

From its first effective lunch in July 2006 until today ( 06-Feb-2021), Twitter has come a long way, achieving a spectacular popularity to be a faster global communication platform to be used in small, big and global events for large scale messaging and communication and now it is even showing the potential to be a new Warfare of Words in the World.

Twitter was in fact, targeted to be used for quick messaging for transmission of  interesting outcomes  from research and development in Science and Technology, social events such as Sports Events, Conferences and similar activities at National or International or Global level. However, soon it became a popular tool for the Celebrities and Politicians globally as it was found to be the most effective tool to convey the messages of the Celebrities and the Politicians to their followers and opponents, their fans and admirers, the Voters and Global audience at large. Twitter also, created a hype to enhance its popularity, by quantifying in numbers, how many persons are following a particular Celebrity or a Politician and soon a kind of competition among the Celebrities and Politicians have come to the being to acquire more followers and be the top following Celebrities and Politicians ( in terms of fan following numbers Nationally, Internationally or Globally ). Thus today, even a Celebrity’s or Politician’s popularity is being defined in terms of number of his/her followers in the Twitter. In addition to that, the other media connected to internet primarily electronic media and even the print media have been drawing messages from the Twitter to post in their Channels by multiplying the spreading effects of the Tweets globally.

Some extreme examples of the Warfare Effect of Tweets leading to War of Words, have been evidenced to be used in American Presidential Elections for campaigning, for fetching votes, transmitting and contradicting election results in the recent times in the United States of America. Even it was believed that Arson and Rioting could be possible by the people getting organized for such acts through messages transmitted through tweets. Twitter, even being only as a communication company, in the process, has become so powerful in the World, that it could be able to audaciously suspend the Twitter Account of a Sitting President of the USA in order to block the transmission of his messages to the audience in USA and Globally; and such act of control by a mere communication company was never dreamt in the history of the World. Even in India, Twitter has become a powerful medium of communication for the Celebrities and Political Personalities targeting the National and International audience and the fan following of such personalities in terms of number of persons, is considered their measured popularity. As seen in USA, similarly, the War of Words by Tweeting among the Celebrities and Political Personalities are seen in India now a days intensively and extensively, that also gets the spread through Internet and all other electronic and print media. Similar is the proportion of War of Words, being seen and used elsewhere or everywhere in the World through Tweeting. Even in the recent days, the Tweets from Celebrities and Political Personalities concerning the ongoing Farmers’ Protest against some enacted Farm Laws in India could reach the War of Words proportion in India, Internationally and Globally. Due to tweets and wordings of the tweets, there have been court cases filed and court proceedings even at the Highest Level in India and else where in the world concerning famous and renounced personalities. The tweets are being examined and accepted as evidences in the Courts of Law at the Highest Levels.  

In the process, Twitter, the communication platform, not only has become very powerful, it has also been the target of ire and influence from the Governments around the World. Some Governments somewhere want the tweets of some personalities (including celebrities and political personalities) be blocked or unblocked or their accounts be deactivated or activated and their tweets be deleted or undeleted. Because, the tweets of such personalities are leading to War of Words, Nationally and Internationally and may lead to law and order situations or affect the reputation of the Governments and Administrations or Institutions. So, Twitter gets engaged with Governments and Administrative machinations as well as Courts Worldwide. Twitter itself, has its own policy of regulating the tweets on the basis of contents, targeted audience and anticipated consequences and repercussion of the tweets; therefore, from time to time it comes in the news regarding whose tweets are deleted/undeleted or whose twitter accounts are deactivated or suspended by Twitter.

The way it is going on in the contemporary times, and given it continues its rapid growth and spread at Global Level exponentially, it can be postulated that  tweeting  can continue to be the potential Warfare as a means for War of Words that can lead to any possible outcome in the World ( as commonly said good and bad or beautiful and ugly ).

Thus, the act of tweeting and its tweets have visibly become the New Warfare of the World ( that can involve War of Words), would not be out of place or out of context to say. Also, as a communication system, tweeting can and has the strong potential to be used as means for development and peace of the world, this could be a deserved credit, otherwise be given to tweeting as and when used for such purposes.

[This article is just the individual observation, representation or mirror of the present situation of tweeting as an activity in the environment, for understanding of the readers of this Blog. A part of the text placed above has been drawn from “Wikipedia” and the source identity has been duly cited above. It is no way intended or targeted to affect any credibility, reputation or popularity of Twitter and no liability could be assigned or attributed to the author for the same, and a therefore a due disclaimer is being duly placed here to that effect].

About the Author : Dr. Nimain Charan  Biswal is a B.Sc.(Agri. Science and Technology), M.B.A. and Ph.D.(Management Area ) by qualifications and he has 35 years of work experience in both  industrial and development sectors in diversified fields of social importance. He has been educated at Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT)-Bhubaneswar, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and Gujarat University (with Resource Support of IIM-Ahmedabad). Dr.Biswal is further educated at IIM-Calcutta, XLRI-Jamshedpur, Apple Computer Industries and Spar Inc., USA. He has worked for reputed National and International Organisations in Senior/Top Management Capacities. He is a management expert covering extensive areas from management in agriculture, industrial management, development management to management of public systems. He is a prominent professional of India and known Internationally as well. He lives at Mumbai in India.