For example, when a message is retweeted, the authorship of the message changes, adding ambiguity to personal pronouns. Who is the “I” in a retweet? Is it the retweeter, or the retweeted? Consider the following example:
A: I like piña coladas.
B: RT @A: I like piña coladas
B’s goal here is ambiguous. Is the reader intended to learn the fact that A likes piña coladas, or is the reader supposed to interpret B as saying “I [too] like piña coladas”? Resolving these ambiguities is a challenge. As retweets are spread, the use of layered attribution introduces a second set of concerns. Consider the following example:
A: Hawaii is beautiful!
B: RT @A: Hawaii is beautiful!
C: RT @A: Hawaii is beautiful! (via @B)
A reader who sees only C may not know if the original was said by B and retweeted by A or vice versa.
…mit Twitter könnte man glaub ich ganze Armeen von Geisteswissenschaftlern zur Verzweiflung bringen…
Danah Boyd, Scott Golder & Gilad Lotan: „Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter“ (pdf)