The author tries to credit Twitter for breaking the story: Prior to the advent of rapidly updated social media, bad news about cars seeped out at the local leve

The author tries to credit Twitter for breaking the story: Prior to the advent of rapidly updated social media, bad news about cars seeped out at the local level. A pattern of accidents here. A sudden uptick in complaints to dealerships there. ... Sufficient evidence to warrant even a NHTSA investigation could take years to organize. Deadly cars could remain on the road for far too long... In fact, social media had nothing to do with discovering the pattern. It only fueled the flamefest after news stories based on government investigation.