Anthony Weiner's Use Of TweetDeck: What Does It Mean For The Hacking Alibi?

By Rosie Gray Sun., Jun. 5 2011 at 10:10 AM

The Daily is semi-dropping bombs today in an article about Anthony Weiner's potentially incriminating use of TweetDeck. They obtained data from TweetCongress.org, which compiles all congressional tweets, and found that the third-party Twitter app was used for all of Weiner's tweets the night of the infamous dick shot. This probably rules out the possibility of his being hacked via email, a theory which had been floated. The Daily says the TweetDeck thing "adds another hurdle for an alibi that has come under increasing fire" -- i.e., it makes the hacking excuse look more fishy. If the tweet came from somewhere else, it would seem less likely that Weiner sent it.

However, it doesn't actually negate the fact that a good hacker could simply notice that Weiner used TweetDeck that night and then mimic it with the hacked tweet. So what can we really garner from this TweetDeck affair? What we do know is that finding out the IP address of the tweet would pretty much figure the whole thing out.

The man behind TweetCongress.org told the Daily that "All they have to do is look at his TweetDeck and see if it came from there, see what IP address [it had]. The local police department or Capitol Police could probably figure this out in 15 minutes."

An investigation of someone's IP address is a big deal and not to be taken lightly. But if Weiner is serious about the hacking thing, he could call for a criminal investigation and have the cops show that the IP address from which the dick tweet originated was not his. As for the possibility of someone mimicking his IP address, if we're already thinking ahead: Reuters API manager (and SoupSoup) Anthony De Rosa told me that "It's not impossible to spoof an IP but it's unlikely since there aren't many opportunities for the hacker to know the congressman's IP at the time of his location." So it does seem as though the IP address would put this one to bed, one way or another.

It's not as though Weiner's hesitance in getting the authorities involved somehow indicates his "guilt." This isn't an issue of guilt and innocence; it's really an issue of good vs. bad PR. Weiner's attempts to clarify this in the press have been failures so far. The answer might be to just go to the cops and end it once and for all -- unless it was his penis and he sent the photo. He may or may not have done that. Deep breaths.

[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

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Lincoln Steffins Jr.

Rosie, respectfully, are you INSANE? Weiner is 1000% guilty, a creep and, as far as responsible governance goes, guilty of much much worse.

The sooner you stop giving credence to anyone with a D- or R- appended to their name the sooner your posts show the brilliance your capable of. Putting your faith in any of these scumbags is just plain foolish.

Pat Clarkson

"It's not as though Weiner's hesitance in getting the authorities involved somehow indicates his "guilt."

It's not? That's strange, because if I hadn't done anything wrong, I'd probably want someone to get to the bottom of it.

Angelo R. Mozilo

Meh, the Tweetdeck ID is just a superficial spin by a desperate media ("they will never tire of a Congressman's crotch") on the same defective theories of nefarious hackers. I still say it was his staffer all along who's been writing the oh-so-witty hockey twitterings and practicing self-portraiture.

Robert Arnold

Americans' Obsession with Folly or the Tale of the TwitterattiAs the brilliant Pascal observed the emperor needs must be feted with frivolity and games in order to keep his or her mind off his or her mortality. This is why fools and madmen alike obtain knighthood. I heard it said yesterday, or rather read it, that double entendres are a sign of immaturity. My imagination immediately seized upon the name of the greatest of playwrights and put up a vocal utterance of "really?" Perhaps this this attitude can be likened to a deservedly obscure "thinker" by the name of Vico, who opined that the Roman Empire was the coming of age of the ancient world. I suppose that Lycurgus, like Shakespeare, would be strictly a puerile jurist in Vico's bizarre world view. Aeschylus a schoolboy, Hamilton a ninny, hardly worth wasting one's breath on...and so on.This brings us to Weinergate. As the astute reader of this so called blog knows by now, I see the repugnant Twitter bubble as a "sign of the (end)times" much like Robert Burton viewed the calamity of his days' everyman, who having the silver to publish any abject drivel to his liking. Plays, in those days were deemed not serious art. And how many of Shakespeare's contemporary and serious Latin poets share the dusty fate of Ozymandias? And so is it any wonder when a member of our ever estimable polity is suspended in delicto by his own rather prominent petard that we cannot withhold a hearty guffaw at his expense...Even in this post modern dark age that has come upon us a laugh or two may do us good.

Sandra Stone

I will google you to see if you are an academic ... or, a wit. These two may not be mutually exclusive. In any event, refreshing levity from one, RA, pitiful display of ineptitude and narcissism from AW. Aw, what a mantle for our age. Each man for himself and never a little band of brothers. Only the breach. Fissures. Furrows, Trenches. Pits. This flapdoodle is one of how many. (Yes, flapdoodle.)

Soren Kay

"However, it doesn't actually negate the fact that a good hacker could simply notice that Weiner used TweetDeck that night and then mimic it with the hacked tweet."

The hacker would also have to get the photo on yfrog too though... and tweedteck's photo upload defaults on yfrog... if there is a hacker it's more likely they got his user/pass and tweeted the tweet through tweetdeck