A similar thing happened last week in Johannesburg. Our ruling party is conducting a long overdue purge of its Youth League, and there was a rent-a-crowd bussed

A similar thing happened last week in Johannesburg. Our ruling party is conducting a long overdue purge of its Youth League, and there was a rent-a-crowd bussed in by the targeted faction, outside the party HQ in central Johannesburg, that threw some stones at police and reporters. However, on Twitter, I saw a rumour that stones were being thrown on a main road in the rich northern suburbs. The rumour spread on Twitter despite almost immediate denials. Although panic didn't take hold, because of limited Twitter penetration, and because the idea that the stone throwing jumped 20 km northwards into white suburbia probably set off BS detectors, it could have gotten out of hand fast. In fact, I expect a major social-networking fed panic to happen here soon enough. When someone says "I confirm", it means that they have personally seen or heard something. I have very little sympathy for the person who created the original tweet. A bit more for the person who retweeted. In both cases 30 years is too harsh, but there do need to be consequences for creating chaos on such a large scale.