Hacked?

The normally staid SCOTUSblog fired out some interesting tweets last night.

Caitlyn Jenner Breaks Twitter Record

The record had previously been broken just two weeks ago by President Obama's @POTUS account.

Twitter Launches Hashflags For Eurovision

President Obama Joins Twitter

IRELAND: Haters Are Pissed At Twitter

Via Bloomberg:

When Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny rallied support for gay marriage ahead of a referendum this month, he got a little more than the usual help from Twitter Inc. As well as disseminating the message through its social media, the company is backing the “yes” campaign, which is leading the polls before the May 22 vote. It says allowing wedlock for two people of the same sex is good for the economy. Other public declarations of support have come from Google Inc. and EBay Inc., which also have European headquarters in Ireland.The Iona Institute, which is leading the campaign against the proposal just over 20 years since the state decriminalized gay sex, told Twitter to stay out of domestic political matters, attacking the company’s argument. “Twitter’s clear implication is that if we vote no it will be bad for business and bad for our international reputation,” said Ben Conroy, a spokesman for the Iona Institute, whose stated mission is to promote marriage and religion in society. “The most powerful economy in Europe, Germany, does not have same-sex marriage, so the idea that voting no would be bad for business is clearly ridiculous.”

Twitter staffers have been canvassing door to door and raising money for Yes Equality.

Dana Loesch Vs Costco Heir

Right wing radio shrieker Dana Loesch is today engaging in a prolonged Twitter battle with Costco heir Justin Brotman, who entered the spotlight last week when he led a Twitter movement to reshape public opinion about the civil unrest in Baltimore. Loesch is claiming that Brotman is sexually harassing her, but all I've seen so far is that he has tweeted images to her like the one below. (Loesch blocked me on Twitter years ago after accusing me of "celebrating" the FRC shooting.)

RELATED: The above-cited recent poll is real although "far more" might be pushing the truth: "A full 61 percent of respondents said they would either be enthusiastic or comfortable with a gay or lesbian president. Only 52 percent said they’d be enthusiastic or comfortable with an evangelical candidate."

Christie Not Kirstie

Yesterday's headline by the New York Times caused many to believe that actress Kirstie Alley was pleading guilty to the Bridgegate scandal. The actress's name trended on Twitter for much of the day.

INDIANA: School Fires Coach Over Threat To Burn Down Anti-Gay Pizza Parlor

Via the Indianapolis Fox affiliate:

A northern Indiana school district says it has fired a coach who tweeted about burning down a pizza shop after its owners said they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding because of their religious beliefs. Concord Community Schools Superintendent Wayne Stubbs confirmed to The Goshen News that Jessica Dooley was terminated on Monday. Dooley had been suspended since April 1 after she suggested burning down Memories Pizza in Walkerton over the owners’ support for a new religious objects law that critics called anti-gay. Fallout over the law sparked boycotts of Indiana and led lawmakers to revise its language to address concerns that it could be used as a legal defense for discrimination.

Local prosecutors are considering criminal charges.

CANADA: Toronto Cop Dyes Hair Pink In Support Of Anti-Bullying Campaign

Via Yahoo:

The Toronto Police force is taking a stand against bullying, but it’s not in the way you might expect. Their unconventional approach involves hot pink hair and Twitter—and kids are paying attention. It all started when Toronto police officers Ryan Willmer and Luke Watson were trying to raise awareness for the Day of Pink on April 8 in Canada, a celebration of diversity and anti-bullying. Two straight students in Nova Scotia started the Day of Pink when they saw a gay student wearing a pink shirt being bullied. They intervened and then rallied the entire school to wear pink in solidarity. To garner more attention for the event, Officer Willmer went on Twitter and promised that his beefy, tattooed colleague would dye his hair pink if the post got 500 retweets with the hashtag #stopbullyingnow and #dayofpink. “He did it without my knowing,” Watson tells Yahoo Beauty. By the time Watson got into the station there were 560 retweets. Thankfully, he was down for the cause.

Follow Office Wilmer on Twitter.

Tech Industry Coalition Issues Statement Calling For Full Federal LGBT Rights

In response to the ongoing RFRA battles, a coalition of over 100 major tech industry corporations has issued a joint statement calling for full federal LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today. We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love. However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone. Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we've taken the time to join this joint statement.

Signees include Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Yahoo, Netflix, Intuit, Uber, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and PayPal. Hit the link for the full list.

Tech Giants Denounce RFRA Bills

Via press release:

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today. We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love. However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone. Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we've taken the time to join this joint statement.

The statement is signed by top executives from eBay, Paypal, Zillow, Twitter, AirBnB, Cisco, SalesForce, Zynga, Yelp, Affirm, Square, Lyft, and many others.

A #BigGay Day With Bryan Fischer

As many of you know, quivering quackpot Bryan Fischer is fond of using the expression "Big Gay' to describe our beloved homofascist movement. For some reason Twitter took notice of that yesterday in a big gay way, sending the #BigGay hashtag onto the worldwide trending list. One of beneficiaries of the hashtag hailstorm was the Big Gay Ice Cream dessert chain, which won an avalanche of new followers just as pre-sales launched for their new book. Hit the hashtag stream and enjoy.

President Obama Reads Mean Tweets

Twitter To SCOTUS: Yes On Marriage

See the full list. Facebook is there too, of course.

Sign Language Guy Steals Storm Presser

Bill De Blasio's super-emotive sign language interpreter stole the show at yesterday's conference on the blizzard, spawning a mini-meme on Twitter.

Mayor de Blasio took the impending blizzard seriously Monday — and so did his expressive sign language interpreter. Interpreter Jonathan Lamberton’s animated gestures and facial expressions got rave reviews on social media. “The sign language interpreter is incredibly animated . . . to the point where I am not really listening to de Blasio,” wrote Twitter user Laura Bedrossian. “De Blasio's sign language interpreter wins this press conference w/the best facial expressions ever.” Katie Halper chimed in: “You know who's NOT phoning it in? The sign language interpreter at @BilldeBlasio's Blizzard presser."

He's rather hypnotic.

Your Jindal

Hey, we've all made typos, particularly on Twitter where there's no way to edit.

US Military Hacked On Twitter

Via the Washington Post:

Social media accounts for the U.S. military’s Central Command appeared to have been hacked on Monday, with the command posting threatening messages on Twitter and YouTube to American troops. The first rogue tweet was posted about 12:30 p.m. It appeared to come from sympathizers with the Islamic State militant group. CENTCOM has orchestrated the U.S.-led airstrike campaign against the militants in Iraq and Syria, and is beginning to train Iraqi troops to respond to the threat in the region. The background and profile photo of the CENTCOM account were both changed to show an apparent militant and the phrases “CyberCaliphate” and “i love you isis,” using one of the acronyms for the militant group.

The Twitter account has now been suspended.

Elizabeth Hasselbeck Is #OverIt2014

Yesterday Fox & Friends launched a Twitter hashtag that backfired rather amusingly.

Canada Joins Twitter

I wonder how much they paid the person who's been sitting that handle all this time. Twitter officially bans the sale of its handles, but some are known to have gone for upwards of six figures.

Anonymous Seizes KKK's Twitter Account In Advance Of Ferguson Decision

Yesterday afternoon Anonymous seized the Ku Klux Klan's Twitter account after the hate group threatened to use "lethal force" during any protests over the coming decision on the indictment of the Missouri police officer that killed a young black man.

The Riverfront Times reported that the St. Louis, Missouri KKK group passed out pamphlets starting, "Attention: To the terrorists masquerading as "peaceful protesters"!" The announcement stated further, "We will use lethal force as provided under Missouri law to defend ourselves." KKK leader Frank Ancona went on MCNBC Wednesday to back up the threat and claim support from Ferguson locals; the head of Missouri's KKK told media that his organization's threats to protesters had boosted KKK recruitment. The Missouri group behind the threats -- Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan -- is listed as an active hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. On Friday Anonymous began doxing (publicly revealing identities and personal information) of KKK members in the Ferguson/St. Louis area.

Prior to the hacking, the KKK spent much of the weekend taunting Anonymous for not being able to hack them. Below is the doxing clip.

UPDATE: YouTube has pulled the clip.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)