Fact check:

- Mark Zuckerberg was 12 years old on July 27, 1996.

- Richard Jewell was cleared on 10/2/96.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell#Exoneration

- There was no Facebook-like social media in 1996.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_social_media

- Facebook was launched on 2/4/04.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg#Facebook

- Lin Wood knows that social media did not exist in 1996.
https://archive.vn/gCuss 

- Wood was Jewell’s attorney from 1996 until past his death (from natural causes) in 2007.
https://archive.vn/glbjl 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell#Death

#1 in above tweet: https://archive.vn/hE9s9 

- Jewell was cleared before he could ever be charged. There was no court case. There was no criminal “defense”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell

- Facebook was initially only open to college and later high school students. The general public could not join until 9/26/06.

L: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook#Facebook
R: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook#Timeline

- In a Google search from 7/27/96-8/29/07 there are no quotes from Zuckerberg calling Jewell a “mass murderer”. The only results I’m getting cite Wood’s tweet.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22mark+zuckerberg%22+%22mass+murderer%22+%22richard+jewell%22&sxsrf=ALeKk0269mHRnzh1QTKxTX8xRNv3yM8wQA%3A1599407965359&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A7%2F27%2F1996%2Ccd_max%3A8%2F29%2F2007&tbm=

- Wood to WSJ in 1996: "We're going to sue everyone from A to Z”.

- All but one of Jewell’s libel lawsuits was settled out of court before Facebook launched.

NBC settled in December 1996.
https://variety.com/1996/scene/vpage/nbc-settles-suit-with-jewell-1117466425/
https://archive.vn/BX6WE 

(cases continued below)
The New York Post settled sometime between November 1998 & March 1999.
https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/t3jlwzg9/new-york-southern-district-court/jewell-v-nyp-holdings-inc/
https://archive.vn/DwVGL 

ABC settled in November 1999.
https://apnews.com/0315d26d9570481ba16f0c178c66ba64
https://archive.vn/mHRH2 

(Wikipedia also mentions a lawsuit against the FBI that I can’t find.)

- The only case that was not settled before Facebook’s launch was against The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution. Litigation went on until 2019.

I can’t find a timeline of the court cases involving Jewell, his estate, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution but The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press ( @rcfp) appears to have the most comprehensive coverage.
https://www.rcfp.org/?s=richard+jewell

- A Georgia trial court found that AJC’s reporting was accurate and dismissed other claims. A trial court dismissed the final claim in December 2007, just after Jewell’s death.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/us/13brfs-jewell.html
https://archive.vn/n55Dz 

Lin Wood has been on Twitter since 2010. He knows exactly how to use the platform. It’s immaterial that some of you can speculate that his tweet about Zuckerberg calling Jewell a “mass murderer” was sarcasm/satire/mockery. Some people won’t know this. ↓
I didn’t even pick up the numbers are wrong. 2 killed, 111 injured.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing

Wood’s tweet is false. Not everyone will remember that Facebook wasn’t available to the public until 2006 or know that Zuckerberg was 12 at the time of the bombing.

Wood didn’t connect his follow up tweet which states that he knew social media didn’t exist in 1996 which means the majority of people won’t see it. First tweet currently at 9.2 retweets/18K likes. Follow up at 2.4K retweets/6K likes.

This thread is for folks who looked at Wood’s tweet and thought it was true or who wanted more context.

Not going to sit here reading replies about how I misunderstood Wood’s tweet. I am muting this thread.
You can follow @keikoinboston.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: