Tech 24: Osama bin Laden killing, the “Twitter Moment”

The killing of al Qaeda leader and founder Osama bin Laden on Sunday, May 1 sparked a dramatic surge of activity across the internet but most notably on Twitter. For three hours on the night of the announcement that bin Laden had been killed, some 39 million Tweets were sent. More importantly the very news of his death was announced first on the microblogging network before the official announcement. Just as CNN had its “moment” during the first Gulf War, Rebecca Bowring and Eric Olander explore whether the Osama bin Laden killing has become the “Twitter Moment.”