Social-Media Sites Turn Out to Present One More Land Mine for Politicians

Social network Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube have become standard tools for politicians. But, with the push of a button, Rep Anthony Weiner (D-NY) broadcast a lewd photograph over the microblogging service Twitter last month and launched a public relations crisis.

His blunder came from the Twitter equivalent of clicking Reply All on an email. Rep Weiner, whom Time.com named as one of "10 Politicians to Follow" on Twitter, has said he was trying to send a Twitter "direct message," with a link to the racy image, to only one other user. But he used the wrong coding for the message, which included his and a Seattle student's Twitter account names, plus a link to the photo. That caused it to be sent to tens of thousands of his Twitter followers. Despite his efforts to delete it, it was quickly archived and retweeted. Thus did Rep Weiner join a growing list of politicians, celebrities and companies that have discovered the power online social media have to build an audience -- and enable embarrassing goofs.