Business Case: Social Benet or Social Disaster? Tweets. Twittering. Prior to 2006, the only denition we would have known for these words would have involved birds and the sounds they make. Now, practically everyone knows that Twitter is also an online servicewith 994 million registered users (80% of them on mobile devices), 326 million monthly active users {including 7.4 million Canadians), 500 million tweets daily, 70 million fake Twitter accounts suspended in 2018, and 1.6 billion daily search queries used to trade short messages of 280 characters or less via the TWeb, cell phones, and other devices?2 According to its founders (Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams), Twitter is many things: a messaging service, a customer service tool to reach customers, a realtime search tool, and a microblogging platform. And as the numbers show, it's become quite popular! The Good and the Bad of TWITI'ER One place where Twitter has caught on is the sports world, especially in college sports. For instance, Mike Riley, head football coach at the University of Nebraska, uses Twitter to keep fans informed. He understands the power of instant communication. Coach Hugh Freeze of the University of Mississippi was an early adopter of social media to communicate recruitment news. He's discovered that tweeting is an easy and fun way to communicate quick tidbits of information to fans, alumni boosters, and other interested people who subscribe to Twitter. And it's a convenient way for the football staff and football recruitment prospects to communicate with each other. There are pretty strict rules the NCAA has about contact allowed between potential recruits and coaches, but NCAA rules do allow unlimited direct messaging. However, coaches still are and coaches, but N A rules do allow i direct messaging. However, coaches still are cautious about committing recruiting violations. So, using Twitter to announce their destinations on the recruiting trail, coaches can indirectly share their recruitment news without naming names. 73 In 2018, Canada and Saudi Arabia had a diplomatic crisis because of Twitter. Canada started the spat with the following tweet: *1 Foreign Policy CAN Canada @CanadaFP Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women's rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi. We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists. 5,851 9:10 AM - Aug 3, 2018 4,056 people are talking about this What some are calling Twitter diplomacy, #diplomacy, or even twiplomacy, led to a major spat between the two countries in which Saudi Arabia threatened to sell off its Canadian assets and stop buying Canadian wheat and barley./ It also ordered Saudi students to leave Canadian schools, expelled the Canadian ambassador in Saudi Arabia, and even suspended flights between the two countries. Former foreign affairs minister John Baird feels Twitter was the wrong platform on which to send the message. "You do it respectfully and face to face, and not do diplomacy via Twitter," Baird said. 7 Speaking in Montreal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, "Canada will always speak strongly and clearly in private and in public on questions of human rights."76