Whenever I saw that disclaimer on very prominent verified or unverified twitter handle, I cringe thinking it’s just a fake means of not acknowledging tweets. What is the liability of retweeting something on Twitter and not showing it to others as an endorsement? You agree with the tweet, you like what was written so why deny it as an endorsement or why you don’t just like it or as it’s called in the past “favourite” it.
Last week I faced the wrath of my Facebook fans when I began retweeting my Biafra fans on the hot subject of the protests going on along with the detention of Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the IPOB, Indigenous People of Biafra organization. With protests mounting and violence breaking out in Onitsha, my retweets became more intense on #HNNAfrica’s timeline.
One of those retweets appeared on my Facebook page which is synched from twitter as a large human penis which shocked my Facebook fans that I could resort to such an offensive post. Most retweets to Facebook are hardly seen with big number of comments but this one has 100 comments where fans disowned me , lashed out and more. It turned out that the avatar of a Twitter user is enlarged on a Facebook Retweet synched from twitter. Dick Supremacy is the owner of the avatar and seems that he runs erotic services. On the other hand, he is also a twitter troll that gets into interesting topics and discussions so I like his input.
I had to explain to my Facebook fans on how twitter works and the synch process. Many did not click the link to see that it actually went to a tweet by someone else. After verbally abusing me for hours, apologies started to pour in when another fan started to explain what twitter and Facebook sync does telling people that I had no control of anyone’s avatars. Eventually I told everyone that I will no longer synch their tweets to Facebook and thus cut their voices. Many were upset and this is the cause of illiteracy about twitter. Retweets are not endorsements but they are no longer retweeted to save my reputation.
Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo
Facebook.com/HNNAfrica
Twitter@HNNAfrica
