PSA: I'm Off Twitter

About

PSA: I'm Off Twitter refers to parodies of a tweet by Benjamin Wittes, editor of Lawfare Blog after communication between he and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh came to light. However, Wittes' announcement that he was leaving Twitter also included many reasons why he would continue to use Twitter. The tweet was mocked and parodied on Twitter after it was posted.

Origin

During the Kavanaugh hearings in the United States Senate, Senator Cory Booker released several documents related to Kavanaugh that were meant to be confidential.^[1] Journalist and editor Benjamin Wittes had defended Kavanaugh’s claim during the proceedings that he wasn’t involved in vetting Bill Pryor, a nominee for a judicial appointment in the 11th Circuit, at the Senate hearings on Kavanaugh. However communications between Wittes and Kavanaugh released by Booker contradict that claim (shown below).

Facing backlash, Wittes tweeted that he would be "off Twitter" except for "booms and for things I want to say." He also said, "I’ll use it as a news source. I’m not going to read any mentions. I’m not going to respond to anyone."

Spread

After the tweet was posted, user Glenn Greenwald sarcastically was thankful Wittes would continue to use "booms," writing that "booms" are GIFs of cannons. The Daily Dot^[2] clarified Wittes uses "booms" whenever news related to Russiagate drops.

Other users mocked Wittes' "PSA" as he would essentially still be using all the functions of Twitter. Multiple parodies of the tweet grew popular over the course of the following day. For example, a tweet by comedian Paul F. Tompkins gained over 300 retweets and 8,800 likes (shown below, left). Another parody by user Simon Maloy gained over 230 retweets and 2,700 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References