Ah, Twitter. That bite-sized break from ennui, that stream of consciousness, that tool of social mobilisation… but mobilisation to what?

Twitter has played an important part in the democratisation of politics – witness the Tweets of solidarity from Iran and the recent downfall of the Carter Ruck’s Trafigura injunction against The Guardian (which was also in no small part caused by The Third Estate and others).

Twitter has been hugely effective as a mass campaigning tool for organisations such as Climate Camp, Avaaz and Greenpeace. It gets petitions signed and it publicises worthy causes more quickly than ever before. There’s no doubt it’s a great tool for quickly disseminating information.

I enjoy Twitter. As a journalist, I sometimes get leads from Twitter. It has been mostly beneficial to my life. It could also be my downfall. At the risk of sounding like a total Luddite, Twitter has great potential for evil…

The great thing about Twitter is that it’s so ‘in the moment’ – this makes it both hugely entertaining and refreshingly un-spun. However, who hasn’t said things ‘in the moment’ that they have later regretted? Twitter could prove to be the ultimate tool for large-scale Chinese whispers. For Crucible-style mass hysteria and mob rule.

Labour’s newly crowned “Twitter tsar”, MP Kerry McCarthy, has already warned MP’s that what they say in haste can come back to haunt them. David Cameron has warned against the dangers of spouting rubbish in his own inimitable way (and if anyone should know…). The difference between Twitter and journalism of the kind that you get in a blog like this one or in a broadsheet newspaper is that it is generally considered commentary.

The mobilisation of the forces of Liberal anger against the Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir is a warning sign. Personally, I believe Jan Moir’s article about the death of the Boyzone singer Stephen Gately was guilty of being both homophobic and incredibly insensitive. However, most of what the Daily Mail publishes is similarly offensive to me. So I don’t buy it and I don’t read it.

I did read Jan Moir’s article, I wonder how many of those who followed those links on Twitter direct to the PCC did the same? I wonder how many people read about the article on Twitter and made up their mind to complain without having seen what they were complaining about? It’s surprisingly easy to get worked up and carried away by being offended…

Seven years ago I had the pleasure of working in an extremely minor capacity on the early stages of Jerry Springer the Opera. The hate campaign that was swiftly mobilised against the production when it was later aired on the BBC was staggering. Nothing has the ability to offend people quite like comedy. What was interesting about the orchestrated mass complaints was that a very small minority of those complaining had actually seen the show. They had only heard about it. The information was disseminated with amazing effectiveness by the Christian Voice organisation (the scourge of comedians) and, thus ‘informed’ their members complained.

It’s insulting to say that because the average demographic of Twitter is young, urban and well educated this could not happen. You yourself are likely to fit all of these categories (or, like me, at least the ‘urban’ one) – how often have you allowed yourself to get all worked up about something without knowing all the facts? Now be honest. With Twitter, as in life, sometimes we should stop, count to ten and think before we pass things on.

Earlier this evening The Guardian was served with a gagging order forbidding it from reporting parliamentary business. To quote the article in the paper itself:

Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.

The right to report on what’s said and done in Parliament is traditionally seen as pretty important in a democracy, so in an attempt to aid transparency, the Third Estate can exclusively report that the question is (probably) this one:

61 N: Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.

Trafigura, of course, is the company that was recently revealed to be not only dumping toxic waste into the sea near Ivory Coast, but also trying very hard to make sure no one found out. Why they and Carter Ruck would be so keen for this question not to be revealed I’m not sure, (especially as it’s clearly publicly available), but they have a history of this kind of behaviour.

All the questions due to be asked in Parliament from tomorrow (Tuesday) onwards can be found here, so feel free to have a browse through the rest of them – it’s possible I guessed wrong, though I think it’s unlikely. And please, please re-post this – the more places publish it, the harder it is to justify a gagging order and the worse Carter Ruck and Trafigura will look.

Edit: This guy found it too (and a bit sooner than me I think).

Edit edit: You can download a copy of the Minton Report, which Trafigura is so keen you don’t read, from Wikileaks here. (H/t Chicken Yoghurt)