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Twitter comes to Bloomberg terminals after SEC okays releasing financial news on social media

Twitter comes to Bloomberg terminals after SEC okays releasing financial news on social media

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Twitter Android 4.0 App Update
Twitter Android 4.0 App Update

Bloomberg's data terminals will now show information from the Twitter feeds of companies, executives, or economists. As The New York Times reports, Bloomberg, whose terminals are ubiquitous on Wall Street, has determined that tweets can be worthy of the same consideration as more traditional newswire services. Bloomberg's Brian Rooney tells the Times that his company had been getting requests from customers to add tweets, prompting the decision. Rooney also seemed keen to dispel the notion that people would be watching for fun: "This isn’t where you monitor The Onion or Ashton Kutcher."

The included feeds, he says, are more likely to be from CEOs or companies, or from a smaller group of influential economists and investors. While the new system has likely been in the works for some time, it comes a day after the SEC officially clarified that releasing company news over Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks was legal. Sparked by a Facebook post on Netflix viewing data, the SEC examined whether using less formal venues was consistent with rules meant to giving investors a level playing field. Companies, they decided, can use any public social platform as an outlet, as long as they indicate they'll be using it for news. That means we could soon be seeing more important information come directly from Twitter, and Bloomberg hopes to be ready.