Are you a Twitter user? The micro-blogging platform in which you can’t type more than 140 characters (yes, it is character, not words).

In the recent time, Twitter has become very popular in the world. Some Nepali have also started using it. Encouraged by its popularity in Nepali users, Kantipur Daily has started publishing a section called "Sataka Twits". In the section one of the reporters copies twitter posts of his/her friends and publishes. When I saw the section last week, I felt a bit uneasy. The section this week is really awkward. One guy, in the published post is telling that he has borrowed his friend’s password to check-out the lady friends there (I thought his name deserves to be removed in the following cutting of the newspaper).

I have a couple of questions, for the publishers.

1. Do the twitters it publishes represents the whole Nepali population? What is the criteria these twits are published and others are not published. If it is a personal preference of somebody why the name of the person not published?

2. Are the person whose twit is being published, notified about the publication? According to the comment of one user (attached below), it seems nobody is pre-informed about the publication.

On the issue, when I raised the question another user replied that a US judge has declared that twits are public.

It is matter of another discussion if a US judiciary decision holds good in Nepal or not. Personally, it is not a matter of law, it is a matter of common sense on what to publish in a National media. They should have at least asked the users involved, before publishing the content. They should have known the content is only targeted to their Twitter friends, not the wide newspaper readers.

For those who want to read more about Twitter, a nice article by Dinesh Wagle is a good read in the same section of the newspaper.

UPDATE
The response of Dinesh Wagle, journalist of Kantipur publication via Twitter is posted below:

My response:
There was a recent news in UK about a court ruling that Twitter posts are considered public domain. Rules are different in different places. In the US, when Google released StreetView, it was allowed to take photos of unsuspected people in the street. But, when it started doing so in Europe and Canada, the governments didn’t allow Google the breach of privacy of people on the street. Google was hence forced to blur the people’s face in the street.

Nepal in the other hand is a different society where privacy is of little value and many don’t even care. Hence, those news of Western world have little value here. When people say “Everybody does it, so we are doing the same;” all I say is, “Let them get lost in the crowd! Those who can get innovative and respect the feelings of their readers, get the sympathy and the respect.”

UPDATE (April 8, 2011)
Kantipur has somewhat realized it’s mistake and has requested the Twitter users to mention it if they want something to be published in the newspaper. This is somewhat a better approach and a step in right direction. I wish they could have come over the ‘ego factor’ and removed it completely rather than making it even more uninteresting to-fill-the-page stuff. Here is the cutting from today’s Kantipur:

UPDATE (April 14, 2011)
Well, the announcement last week was not followed in the tweets published this week. Let’s see how long they will continue this nonsense.