An unusual thing happened earlier today on Twitter.

An earthquake took place. It was felt in Tokyo. Tokyo jumped up Trending Topics and the world went crazy when it heard the quake had a 7.1 magnitude. News outlets around the world used headlines like ‘Strong earthquake jolts Tokyo.’

This has happened countless times before on Twitter. But instead of freaking out, the tweets from Tokyo itself told a different story. They said it was all over-exaggerated.

Twitterers told followers overseas that they were just fine and repeatedly said media around the world was making the event sound worse than it really was — at least in Tokyo.

1. 
   cpbo tweeting from Tokyo. the earthquake was not as strong as people think it is. we are fine! 09 Aug 2009 from web
2. 
   caranha To all those following the Tokyo trend, the magnitude of the Earthquake here was between 3 and 4, not 7. The 7 mag report is epicenter @ sea 09 Aug 2009 from web
3. 
   MissJuri wow, Tokyo is a trending topic xD Strong earthquake shakes Tokyo area?? http://bit.ly/10tmz9 STRONG??hahaa. 09 Aug 2009 from web
4. 
   hosakanorihisa TOKYO is still same. not so big shake. RT Strong earthquake (7.1 magnitude) in Japan nr Tokyo (CNN) – http://bit.ly/hy0z2 09 Aug 2009 from web
5. 
   gtb Everyone’s tweeting about the “big, long earthquake” in Tokyo. Y & I only noticed it because we heard a sound. Thought it was fireworks. 09 Aug 2009 from Tweetie
6. 
   sweetpinkpixie The news outside Japan is TOTALLY blowing today’s earthquake out of proportion…none of the articles I’ve read say the same magnitude… 09 Aug 2009 from web
7. 
   eipangan Tokyo earthquake confirmed Twitter has more updated news than anywhere else on the web. I think so. 09 Aug 2009 from Tweetie
8. 
   velveteenflower That shaking I felt was a 7.1 earthquake 200 miles SW of Tokyo. If that hit this city dead on, I probably wouldn’t be here. 09 Aug 2009 from web

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