Kenneth Cole or His Publicist?
If you’re unfamiliar with twitter it’s not unusual for a large brand to have more than one person tweeting on the account. What they do is then add their initials to the tweet so that you’ll see who sent it.
This morning this was on the @KennethCole account. Note that whomever posted this tweet had the foresight to customize the bit.ly link to read KCairo instead of the random string of characters bit.ly will create on it’s own.
Is this from Kenneth Cole?
A few hours later this anemic apology showed up.
Is this an apology?
A few things are clear about this (in my mind). They don’t understand the power of twitter. Twitter is being used right now by the Egytpians as a major communications tool in their uprising. Worldwide Digital Natives are creating open source software that allows the Egyptians access to the internet.
This morning women are mourning the loss of their children who died because they dared demonstrate in hopes of a freer Egypt. This evening more families will join those ranks.
When people are dying for a chance to have freedom, real freedom, it’s the time to be reverent. It’s a moment for inflection, and to be proud of humanity. This is a time where every Digital Native should look at the country they are in and ask themselves what they can do to keep the Internet Open and Neutral.
This is not a moment to sell mid range shoes.
What are you prepared to do today to help ensure that the the Internet Stays Open? Net Neutrality matters.
UPDATE: Ranker (of course) has a list of House Representatives who are against Net Neutrality. I’m asking each and every one of you to contact your representative in some capacity today.