Twitter is getting into lots of trouble: its role in Fumo trial not rare

Vince Fumo was convicted on all 137 counts against him yesterday, despite an attempt by the former Pennsylvania State Senator’s legal team to halt jury deliberations when news broke that a juror had posted messages related to the trial on Twitter.
That move will almost certain be grounds for an appeal.
The first to get the name of the juror – Eric Wuest – was Harrisburg Patriot-News reporter Daniel Victor, an active Twitter user himself.
But, of course, this is just one in a series of recent small scandals surrounding the power and voice that the microblogging site provides previously ordinary folks.
It’s happened in other courtrooms. Last week, a court room decision was appealed after juror tweets seemed to suggest bias. News leaked about offline Gmail on Twitter. When someone broke into the home of Revision3 COO David Prager earlier this month, he updated Twitter, rather than calling police.
There was also the media firestorm around Congressional leaders tweeted during President Barack Obama’s first speech on that state of the nation.
Some incidences have seemed a bit more serious, but follow the theme of Twitter creating news that likely wouldn’t have been before its existence.
In February, a secret Congressional delegation to Iraq was suddenly rendered, um, un-secret because of Twitter. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R – MI) tweeted his arrival into Baghdad.
Virginia House Delegate and State Republican Chairman Jeff Frederick tweeted about a state Democrat changing his affiliation before it happened – and then it never did.
All the news Twitter gets might make you think there are, oh, at least 100 things more popular than the service.
But, it does show you that, while the Internet is just a utility, the many varied services that rely on it are maturing and growing in power and influence.