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‘Prophetic’ tweet about pope goes viral

Twitter is abuzz over a February 11th tweet in which the boyfriend of Spanish woman Yolanda De Mena allegedly predicted the world's new pope would be called Francis I.

Published: 14 March 2013 18:02 CET

'Prophetic' tweet about pope goes viral

A February 11th tweet supposedly predicting the election of Francis I has clocked up nearly 60,000 retweets.

"My boyfriend woke up at 4am this morning saying he had dreamed about a new pope called Francis I and today Benedict resigned," reads the tweet (below) from Yolanda De Mena, which was apparently sent out on February 11th.

The original tweet had been retweeted 49,402 times up to March 14th, reported the newspaper La Opinión de Murcia.

That figure was closer to 60,000 at 5.45pm on Thursday.

Yolanda De Mena is now fast approaching 10,000 followers on Twitter, up from around 100 before the supposedly prophetic tweet.

The publicist at ESIC business school had picked up around 3,000 followers from Thursday morning to 6.00pm on the same day.

Not everyone is taking the tweet too seriously though.

José Enrique Cabrero called the message "the biggest spoiler in the history of humanity.

El Tito Sal asked: "Who's going to win the Champions League. Seriously! Flabbergasting!

And Marcos Iriarte commented: "Boyfriend waking you up at 4am???? Urgh. I hope you don't get married, this is terrible."

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Twitter appeals French court ruling on hate speech transparency

The Twitter logo is seen on a phone. Twitter has appealed a French court judgement requiring it to share documents with activist groups. Photo: Alastair Pike / AFP

In July, a French court ordered Twitter to grant six French anti-discrimination groups full access to all documents relating to the
company’s efforts to combat hate speech since May 2020. The ruling applied to Twitter’s global operation, not just France.

Twitter has appealed the decision and a hearing has been set for December 9, 2021, a judicial source told AFP, confirming information released by the groups’ lawyers.

Twitter and its lawyers declined to comment.

The July order said that Twitter must hand over “all administrative, contractual, technical or commercial documents” detailing the resources it has assigned to fight homophobic, racist and sexist discourse on the site, as well as the offence of “condoning crimes against humanity”.

It also said Twitter must reveal how many moderators it employs in France to examine posts flagged as hateful, and data on the posts they process.

READ ALSO: French court orders Twitter to change smallprint over ‘abusive’ methods

The July ruling gave the San Francisco-based company two months to comply. Twitter can ask for a suspension pending the appeal.

The six anti-discrimination groups had taken Twitter to court in France last year, accusing the US social media giant of “long-term and persistent” failures in blocking hateful comments from the site.

The groups campaign against homophobia, racism and anti-Semitism. Twitter’s hateful conduct policy bans users from promoting violence or threatening or attacking people based on their race, religion, gender identity or disability, among other forms of discrimination.

Like other social media giants it allows users to report posts they believe are hateful, and employs moderators to vet the content.

But anti-discrimination groups have long complained that holes in the policy allow hateful comments to stay online in many cases.

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