Community Corner

Tri Cities, Area Residents React to Osama Bin Laden's Death Online

The late-night, historic announcement had many locals abuzz on the Internet

The news last night that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces had people flocking to the Internet last night, including those up and down the Fox River.

Many were on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, or just reading all the stories online late Sunday night as word broke that Bin Laden was taken down in an U.S. operation. Intelligence reports led troops to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Bin Laden was killed after a firefight, according to AOL News.

Twitter reported on one of its official accounts that it had reached more than 4,000 tweets per second on Sunday at the start and conclusion of President Barack Obama's speech on the Bin Laden announcement.

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Area realtor Julie Fiorito tweeted "I am proud to be an American!" following Obama's nearly 10-minute speech. Many of the TV news anchors said it was rare for a U.S. president to make a late-night address, let alone on a Sunday.

Batavia resident Bret Breon also reacted to the news, writing on people's Facebook walls. Last night Breon posted a new link to his seven-year commemoration video of 9/11 on his Facebook page (link to it here, but you must be logged into Facebook).

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Before he addresed the nation, speculation was rampant about the subject of Obama's actual speech. Initial reports said he was going to speak at about 9:30 p.m. central time, but he did not go on the air until after 10:30 p.m.

Local Twitter user @ReevesU followed his speculations with an #obamaguesses hashtag. Batavia Twitter user @ninwest was one of the first in the area to send a message that the announcement could be about Bin Laden as global media began to break the news.

At one point during Sunday's big announcement, Elginchat host, Patch freelance writer and Elgin resident Jose Villalobos said "I can't tweet and retweet fast enough because of what's happenign (sic) right now!"


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