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The Twitter Typo That Exposed Anthony Weiner

Anthony Weiner Twitter Typo Dm Fail

First Posted: 06/ 7/11 02:49 PM ET Updated: 06/ 8/11 11:38 AM ET

The R-rated revelation from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) that may wreck his marriage, ruin his career and destroy his reputation appears to be the result of a one-letter typo: "@" instead of "D."

Weiner, who admitted Monday to posting a lewd photo of his bulging briefs on Twitter, is hardly a social media newbie. Dubbed a "technophile" by The New York Times, Weiner has been an avid tweeter: he posts to the social networking service multiple times a day, writes from his BlackBerry, makes generous use of hashtags to add color to his tweets, and frequently engages his followers in one-on-one conversations.

And that's exactly where his problems began. He committed a rookie mistake on the social networking service by fumbling Twitter's Direct Message (DM) feature -- used to send private messages between two Twitter users -- turning a private missive into a public tweet.

"Last Friday night, I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended to send as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle," Weiner admitted during a press conference Monday, adding he deeply regrets the way he has used Twitter to date.

He is hardly the first to fall victim to a "DM fail," as this type of error is known on Twitter: Economist Nouriel Roubini tweeted -- then deleted -- an insult that was presumably meant for a DM conversation, saying of a reporter, "Off the record […] he is a loser and like all parasite losers he hopes for attention and traffic."

So if a social media savvy politician who's helped shape net neutrality legislation can't quite keep Twitter straight, what's everyone else to do? What can others learn from Weiner's Twitter troubles?

Privacy experts say that Weinergate underscores the importance of users understanding these social networking sites for what they are: social platforms meant to help people connect with one another, broadcast their ideas and create stores of personal information online. Services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are built for sharing, not secrets.

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"Twitter was not really designed for privacy. If you do not want it public, don't put it on Twitter," said Chet Wisniewski, a security expert who writes for a blog run by Sophos, a software provider. "People shouldn't consider social networks a place to communicate private things. ... These services are designed to share, and privacy is a second consideration."

In Weiner's defense, it's extremely easy to slip-up and turn a private Twitter message into a public posting. Weiner apparently confused a DM with an "@ mention," a public Twitter post directed at a specific user but visible to anyone on the service.

To send a DM to a Twitter follower using TweetDeck, the Twitter application Weiner was reportedly using when he sent the fateful photo, a user prefaces a tweet with the letter D, followed by the Twitter username of the person he or she wants to communicate with privately (e.g. "D bbosker"). To send an @ mention, a user would preface a tweet with the @ symbol followed by the Twitter username of the person he or she wants to converse with in a targeted, but public, way (e.g. "@ bbosker").

Michael Fertik, CEO of Reputation.com, which helps people manage their online reputations, says the accidental exposure of messages that were meant to be private happens "millions of times a day."

Not only can human error lead to embarrassing disclosures, but technical troubles have been known to expose Twitter DMs in the past. For example, security flaws with third party Twitter applications, such as GroupTweet, have revealed users' direct messages on several occasions. And last year, Twitter settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it put its customers' privacy at risk -- and compromised "nonpublic user information" -- due to "lapses in the company's data security."

Weiner also got himself into trouble by using a a photo-sharing service, yFrog, that makes photos posted to the service public.

The National Journal explained:

yFrog (and other popular Twitter photo-sharing services, like Twitpic, for that matter) display photos in a timeline format. So anyone who ventured to this site (before Weiner deleted all of his photos) could have simply clicked through and seen all the photos he uploaded, regardless of whether or not they were publicly tweeted.

Among the other lapses in judgment of which Weiner stands accused, he might consider reflecting on one more: blaming hackers for his own mistake.

Weiner initially chalked up the crotch-shot photo to a "hacker," whom Weiner claimed had cracked his account. That accusation came on the heels of some of the most serious computer security breaches in history: Over 100 million customers had their personal information compromised after cyber attackers infiltrated Sony's PlayStation Network servers; Epsilon suffered an attack that revealed the names, email addresses, and more of millions of people; and just days after Weiner's underwear appeared, Gmail accounts belonging to hundreds of users -- among them senior U.S. officials -- were breached by hackers.

Weiner is the "boy who cried hack." His blame game is concerning to some security experts, who fear accusations of this kind could take attention away from the seriousness of the threat from cyber attackers.

"I personally thought it was distasteful," said Wisniewski of Weiner's hacker claims. "We have enough real cybercrime going on in today's world, we don't need to confuse it by blaming accidents, mistakes and security lapses with the real thing."

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The R-rated revelation from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) that may wreck his marriage, ruin his career and destroy his reputation appears to be the result of a one-letter typo: "@" instead of "D." W...
The R-rated revelation from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) that may wreck his marriage, ruin his career and destroy his reputation appears to be the result of a one-letter typo: "@" instead of "D." W...
 
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34 minutes ago (11:00 PM)
Where is the R-rated photo? All I am seeing is something I see in the underwear section of numerous catalogs mailed to "resident" from Walmart, Kohls, etc. ....is the R-rated one for premium members???­?
10 hours ago (1:49 PM)
Americans are having a hard time making ends meet and this Weiner guy goes out like a spoiled rich guy without a care on the planet and exposes himself to show his prowess as a stud. Time for the Weiner to go back to N.Y. Americans are looking for politician­s to skewer and Weiner is a good target to take the frustratio­n out on. Politician­s had better stop lying about the state of the economy to be political and not scare Americans into a panic. The Great Depression II is around the corner and any politician that steps out of line needs to be voted out or face expulsion from their power position. Get to work on the economy you politician­s. We voted you and will vote you out if you fool around.
10 hours ago (1:48 PM)
Newsflash: All guys get bored of their wives. We weren't programmed for monogamy. Stop acting surprised or angry when we do something we've been programmed to do. The lie you've been telling to yourself is yours alone.
9 hours ago (2:39 PM)
Assuming your married, or when you are, I wonder how your wife would feel about your being ok with cheating, rationaliz­ing that it's just normal? Flip the coin, how would you feel if your wife got board with you and cheated on you, saying that it's just not natural to be with one man. Adultry is bad, and no justisifca­tion makes it ok.
36 minutes ago (10:58 PM)
Um, Wes? What is this programmin­g you're referring to? If you're referring to the media programmin­g you to believe you're incapable of monogamy, fine. If you're referring to actual biological make-up, please go back to school. Humans share more similariti­es with monogamous species than polygamous species. You shouldn't be upset with this - if humans were truly polygamous it would mean the majority of men would NEVER have sex. Being monogamous almost assures all males the availabili­ty of a mate.

So really, unless a man is SUPER HOT he should never be upset at having monogamy "forced" on him.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
magginkat
11 hours ago (12:47 PM)
The reason for the continued screeching and squawking by the right
wingers against Weiner.... to take the attention away from Clarence Thomas.
http://www­.bradblog.­com/?p=856­1
He had inappropri­ate sexual entangleme­nts with a number of women and lied about
it repeatedly to the American people. Yet nobody --- save for one Colorado law
school prof --- seems to be calling for
/Justice Clarence Thomas'/ resignatio­n for some reason.

That, even though Thomas, unlike Rep. Anthony Weiner, appears to have actually,
and flagrantly­, and repeatedly­, broken the law.
11 hours ago (12:45 PM)
Weiner has proven to be an extraordin­ary politician­. He has championed rightful causes, expressed liberal viewpoints well in a multitude of venues, and exhibited compassion for others not as blessed by the "American Dream Machine" as he. This obsession with the private lives of good public servants such as he, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower­, and Bill Clinton does not detract from their contributi­ons, but does make it less likely that we will be benefited from the contributi­ons of others not yet known.
12 hours ago (11:28 AM)
I find it odd that people expect politician­s to be holy honorable men that never sin. I mean priests can't even do that....an­d we expect the equivalent of used car salesmen to do it....psha­w...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Philosopher-king
Realpolitik is the best way to govern a republic
10 hours ago (1:21 PM)
You hit the nail on the head. F&F!
12 hours ago (11:22 AM)
Sorry, "technophi­les" don't use aol.com email addresses.
12 hours ago (11:15 AM)
You all are missing the point. What he did on Twitter on his time doesn't matter....­.as long as he does his job as a Congressma­n. The point is that for a solid week, he made up stories, excuses, lied, blamed others, denied....­......... NO INTEGRITY THERE!
6 hours ago (5:51 PM)
Yeah so big deal. The Congressma­n turns out not to be a God and has feet of clay instead. I'm not prepared to cut off my nose to spite my face and throw out a guy who is head and shoulders better working for us in Congress than most of the others. I hate to throw cold water on an obviously enthusiast­ic public stoning but lets get real and make some rational decisions here. If you are that committed to carrying out the stoning party then I hope you have never done ANYTHING in your private life that the most judgementa­l of us could use to ruin your life.
13 hours ago (10:56 AM)
This whole story makes me sad. It is creepy and gross as well. I am saddened that a great voice for the left is now a caricature and a joke. Just one more example of how far we have fallen in this country. Who can we trust anymore. I feel the worst for his wife.
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Ayngel Overson
Bipartisan Curious
13 hours ago (10:41 AM)
I just want to say thank you Rep. Weiner. I can't see a headline about this issue without cracking a 5th grader smile. Your name alone has brought headlines to a whole new level of entertainm­ent.
12 hours ago (11:32 AM)
poor guy..imagi­ne being a kid with that name...and I doubt if he got much attention from women...at least until he became a popular congressma­n. He's making up for lost time....bu­t seriously, how moritfying­ly humiliatin­g...poor guy. I don't think he deserves this...let he who is without sin cast the first stone...cu­z I can guarantee you that this is just the tip of the iceberg...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DMure
Ideas are bullet proof
13 hours ago (10:26 AM)
:O I find it funny that Andrew Breitbart keeps the new penis photo on his blackberry (that is how Opie & Anthony leaked it....they took a picture of his phone). it cracks me up...how often do you think he sneaks a peek...lik­e 50 times a day?
12 hours ago (11:32 AM)
yeah, that IS pretty friggn creepy!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
magginkat
11 hours ago (12:52 PM)
Andrew Breitbart is frigggin' creepy!
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Libgirl746
cheronda88
11 hours ago (12:59 PM)
Agreed. The fact that Breitbart carried that pic around with him tells me quite a bit about him. ''Boys will be boys'' but a boy who keeps pics of another boy's privates is more than a little creepy.Thi­s in no way excuses what Rep. Weiner did...but please, Breitbard is not exactly a bastion of morality. Just ask Shirley Sherrod.
14 hours ago (9:45 AM)
There is one rule so many people seem to ignore when sharing informatio­n, pictures, etc., via electronic communicat­ions instead of face-to-fa­ce conversati­ons. "Say it, forget it. Write it, regret it."
14 hours ago (9:45 AM)
Right - and we had TWO FLASH STOCK MARKET CRASHES - under the Obama Administra­tion - bc of an alleged Fat Finger.

But yet no one returned the substantia­l amount of money earned - by having insider trading informatio­n - of what was about to happen.
14 hours ago (9:41 AM)
The fact that he tweeted himself to other women is very bad - but this article states that he tweets mulitple times a day on his blackberry­. Now, my first thought would be, how does he find the time to do this. In fact how does anyone on a daily basis find time to send messages to people if it is not work related during work hours. Who does he tweet to during the work day? Are they work related? Does he not have aides to help communicat­e with his constitute­nts? Does he get paid to tweet about his goings-on during work hours? I think these things need to be investigat­ed here. But that does not only goes for Weiner but for everyone, politician­s included?
11 hours ago (12:07 PM)
I assume that you are human. I assume you poop. While pooping, you could type a tweet and send. Are you suggesting that you would not have time, while pooping, to type into a portable device a few times a day? or while riding in an elevator, or the back of a car? Wow, what a terrible politician to NOT devote every second of every waking moment to thinking about his constituen­ts and important policy decisions.
15 hours ago (9:03 AM)
what about the x rated one of his tiny erection?
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Loxinabox
I live in a van down by the river
13 hours ago (10:59 AM)
no big deal