Has Twitter come of age?

Last week has been hailed as the week Twitter came of age. Twitter was the driving force behind three very separate public scandals and in the case of two of them, Twitter and social media led to the issues leading the news agenda and causing genuine public outcry.

The first scandal was the Trafigura affair. Early last week, it was revealed via Twitter that leading law firm, Carter Ruck had won an injunction to stop the Guardian revealing that an MP had asked a question in parliament about an allegation of illegal fly tipping of chemical waste in the Ivory Coast by a cargo ship that was chartered by Trafigura, a multinatonal oil-trading company. The storm that followed was fuelled by outrage across Facebook and Twitter complementing the power of the print press and it led to Trafigura becoming a trending topic, Carter Ruck being flash-mobbed, the injunction being lifted and most significantly of all, confirmation from Gordon Brown that he would request an investigation into the use of Stop injunctions- such as the one used by Carter Ruck.

Just as Trafigura subsided, Twitter blew up again - this time it was the story of a local London story where a TFL employee at Holborn station was filmed telling another elderly passenger that he would 'sling him under the train'.
TFL was bombarded by angry Tweeters, once again it became a trending topic and the employee was subsequently suspended-within hours of the virtual lynch mob clamouring for his sacking.

However perhaps the biggest outcry was saved for Friday when the Daily Mail columnist, Jan Moir became public enemy number one within just a few hours with her column on the death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately, which many felt was out of order, insensitive and had homophobic undertones. The Twittersphere went crazy when the article appeared online and seemingly, Moir herself was forced to set up her own Twitter account to defend the article and then issue a very public apology- which was subsequently followed up by the national media. Just today-it was reported that the Press Complaints Commission had received over 21,000 about Moir's article- the highest number in the PCC's history.

So was last week the start of a new phenomenon; is there really nowhere to hide now once an organisation or individual makes a grave error or commits something even worse?

Twitter has certainly achieved critical mass; it's everywhere even on the current bastions of popular culture, X-Factor and Strictly and it's certainly established itself as the best channel for not only eyewitness accounts but also the rapid spread of information to both niche and mass audiences.

There will definitely be more Trafigura, TFL and Moir outrages and Twitter will no doubt fuel some more than others as it and the broader take up of social media is not subsiding and is not going to go away.

What last week shows us is that there is a new channel for instant outrage and that there's also a channel, which can now set the news agenda in just a few hours.

Purists will want Twitter to stay the way that it is - as the ultimate citizen tool- the trick will be to achieve a balance as whilst Twitter is certainly a new and powerful channel for e-democracy, it's also a very valuable communications and awareness tool - if the cause is right and whilst the two should not be combined, they can both have long term values and be forces for good.