Doctor Kicked off Carnival Dream after fake tweet?

[Paul Motter]

Neurosurgeon pulled off cruise ship over tweet | Hot Topics | an SFGate.com blog

This story tells us about a doctor who was pulled off of Carnival Magic, as a suspected terrorist, because someone else impersonated him on Twitter and said he had a vial of biohazardous material he planned to use to poison the ship.

He was scheduled to speak to a group, and even though they figured out the tweet was a fake he was still taken off and not let back on - per the ship captain's orders.

UUmmm... what "twit" would announced his intentions to poison a ship on Twitter? Of course it was fake and had nothing to do with the doctor - as far as I can see.

What was this captain thinking?

[Trip]

When I read about this, you think, what next? Amazing how quickly, your reputation can be ruined in 140 characters. The come back invitation was too little too late, but the gravity of the tweet, didn't give them much choice in what to do...They would be damned if they do, and, damned if they don't.

I hope the moronic tweeter is prosecuted for something.

[KellyKayden]

Uh oh....time to start editing my twitter #bigbrotheriswatching

(Kidding of course)

[Snoozeman]

This was pretty big news around here...local TV news and newsprint. Interviews with the Doctor and all. Interesting. I still think the Magic is jinxed.

[Paul Motter]

I just read a news update that says Carnival offered to fly him to the cruise at the next port of call but he turned them down.

I'm sorry, but this was a really bad error in judgement by Carnival - I mean if the doctor planned to do such a thing he certainly would not tweet it under a twitter account that says "shite Jack Kruse says"

And the actual doctor would have been insane to really tweet about it anyway. So the whole thing makes no sense.

I am guessing that whoever did it never thought anyone would be stupid enough to believe those tweets came from Jack Kruse, because now they will face lawsuits for impersonating him and causing damage to his professional reputation.

But Carnival - all I can say is that it appears you are taking Twitter far too seriously these days.

The other place I know of that takes Twitter really seriously is CNN television - and they are now the last-place television news network, even MSNBC is higher and FoxNews (for whom I write) is number one with an audience roughly four times larger than CNN.

Sometimes I wonder if the decision makers at companies really have a clue about things like audience reach - and credentials of real people vs. the kind of people who have the time to waste on things like Twitter day in and out. Where's the perspective here?

[Snoozeman]

The Carnival Magic Captain blew it for sure. The FBI told him that the guy was ok, but he wouldn't have any of it. The Doc wasn't really P.O.'d about it....just went home...he gave a very civil and sympathetic interview on the local TV news.

Just one of a series of bad decisions by the Captain-IMHO.

[KellyKayden]

Well, I do consider myself a 'real' person, who happens to like twitter. However, I like it just for the silly fun not for anything serious. I have friends all through the country and you can put just a 'hi' or 'good morning' and it buzzes everyone that you choose. Its almost like being able to have a quick conversation with friends. Ii don't follow any news sources..its strictly for entertainment purposes.

To use it in the case as described above just seems silly

[Trip]

I think if this situation happened in 2011, it might have played out differently. Since the first of this year, the industry is walking on eggshells, waiting for that other shoe to drop...and they are dropping

[Aidan]

Bloodlust is human nature. Posters in this very forum, when presented with news stories of accusations of drug use or child abuse, have called for long jail time or death ..... before a trial!