Twitter has been instrumental during past moments of political upheaval, typically as a means for citizens to communicate outside the wrath of oppressive states (such as in the Arab Spring). But news, and precedent, were broken here: this is a narration of real, physical violence by the agents of violence, all as the violence is being wrought. And this raises a number of questions for the start-up giants who founded the various platforms…

Emily Greenhouse writes “The Tweets of War,” on Israel’s and Hamas’s recent use of Twitter: http://nyr.kr/UDWiWL