Twitter

Last year, an audience task force for Sandusky Newspaper Group, the parent company of the Standard-Examiner, came up with a list of best practices for news employees using social media. One of the practices was not to use Facebook and Twitter as vehicles to disseminate news. Instead we use social media to promote and link to news and other content available on newspaper-owned websites.

One of the reasons for this practice was to direct audience to the platforms where the newspapers sell their own advertising around content, rather than someone else doing it on a social media site. Another reason was to allow for the news content to be posted on a secure website where there was some institutional editorial control.

This meant someone else would view the content before it was posted and it would have tampering protection.

The recent hacking of the Associated Press Twitter feed shows just how vulnerable social media platforms are for spreading rumors and misinformation.

KEARNS — Police say a 17-year-old boy will face felony charges for saying on Twitter that he was going to blow up Kearns High School.

LONDON -- British high-society magazine Tatler is mourning its beloved office dog, Alan, who died in a revolving-door accident.

A British politician is seeking damages from high-profile Twitter users who repeated or retweeted a false

report linking him to child sex abuse. The former Conservative Party official, Alistair McAlpine, is also asking lower-profile Twitter users who libeled him to

apologize and make a dona-tion to charity. The United Kingdom is notorious for its plaintiff-friendly defamation laws — but what about in the United States? Could an American be sued for libel based on tweets, too?

The first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney illustrated how social media has become a powerful platform for the instantaneous dissemination of information.

During the debate, numerous viewers took to Twitter to give their reaction, in 140 characters or less, to points made by each candidate.

It was mass analysis on the fly.

LOS ANGELES - Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Dick Costolo said the short message social network has a "truckload of money in the bank" and would remain a private company for as long as it wants.

ANKARA, Turkey -- A Turkish court on Friday formally charged an internationally known pianist and composer with insulting Islamic religious values in comments he made on Twitter.