Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2010

Abstract

On February 22, 2010 the Office of the 14th Dalai Lama joined the online microblogging site Twitter. Twitter is an internet based community, ranked the world’s third most used online social network by Compete.com. Members post messages called “tweets” that are displayed on to their profile pages and delivered to their subscribers, known as followers. The Dalai Lama reportedly joined Twitter after meeting the site’s founder, Evan Williams, although Mr. Williams posted on his own Twitter page that the Dalai Lama had laughed when he suggested the idea to him.1 However, the account may have been set up one week before Williams met him and five hours after the seemingly dismissive tweet the @DalaiLama account was listed as confirmed authentic and began publishing messages.2 Within a week, the Dalai Lama had over 100,000 Twitter followers.

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