Mexico City Mayor breaks earthquake news on Twitter

Posted on: 5:04 pm, March 20, 2012, by Alix Bryan

Just in case anyone had their doubts, Twitter is a newswire.

Today, Mexico City Mayor Marcello Ebrard tweeted the news from his Blackberry that the city was experiencing an earthquake.

Tenemos sismo—
Marcelo Ebrard (@m_ebrard) March 20, 2012

The translation is “we have an earthquake.”

The news spread quickly, and the Mayor’s tweet went out before the Associated Press broke the news.

The 7. 4 magnitude quake had its epicenter in Guerrero state. CNN reports that tourists and residents felt the quake in the resort city of Acapulco, about a two-hour drive.

Similarly, during the Richmond earthquake on August 23 2011, news spread quickly through Twitter.

In fact, earlier this year Wired Magazine wrote and credited a Richmonder for breaking the news of the East Coast earthquake last summer.

According to the article, “Eyewitness Tweets,” CeeJay Price, known as @JordnJnkieJuice, tweeted 24 seconds after the earthquake. The tweet was short and sweet: “EARTHQUAKE!!!!!”