Skip to main content

A chicken called Betty is trying to tweet her way to a world record

Her name’s Betty, she lives in Australia, and she’s on Twitter. So far, so normal, right?

But here’s where it gets weird: Betty’s a chicken.

Recommended Videos

While we all know that among Twitter’s 315 million or so users there are a few animals knocking out tweets, would it be so outrageous to suggest that, well, it’s actually a human tapping out those messages? Well, not so with Betty.

I think we’d better explain.

Betty the tweeting hen is the brainchild of Australian fast-food chain Chicken Treat. The plan is to score Betty a Guinness World Record by becoming the first chicken to post a proper tweet, in this case defined as one that includes a dictionary-recognized English-language word of at least five letters. Yes, it’s kind of along the lines of the infinite monkey theorem. But with a chicken.

The team behind the marketing stunt put Betty in a high-tech henhouse eight days ago in the vain hope that all of her pecking and stomping on the computer keyboard, which is linked directly to her Twitter account, might eventually result in a comprehensible tweet, securing the hen her world record.

However, more than 550 tweets in, it’s not looking good for Betty, with most of her efforts exactly what you’d expect from a birdbrain. The closest she’s come to hitting the jackpot so far include words such as “bum” and “few”, spotted in two separate posts.

But as you can see from these examples, most of her efforts look like mathematical equations from the future. Maybe they are.

Betty’s Twitter account has already picked up more than 10,000 followers as fans wait and hope for the feathered Twitter user to bash out a proper word, though as you’ll probably agree, it looks as if it’s going to be a long wait.

Thinking about it, perhaps Betty knows exactly what’s going on, fearing that if she does manage to send out a sensible tweet, a place in the Guinness World Records will be swiftly followed by a place in the deep fryer.

In that case, a Save Betty campaign may be just around the corner.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to deactivate your Instagram account (or delete it)
A person holding a phone with the Instagram app open on it.

Oh, social media. Sometimes it’s just too much, folks. If you’re finding yourself in a position where shutting down your Instagram account for a period of time sounds good, Meta’s powers that be have made it pretty simple to deactivate your Instagram account. It’s also quite easy to completely delete your Instagram, although we wouldn’t recommend this latter option if you plan on returning to the platform at a later date.

Read more
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Incogni: Recover your privacy and remove personal information from the internet
Incogni remove your personal data from brokers and more

Everything you do while online is tracked digitally. Often connected to your email address or an issued IP, trackers can easily identify financial details, sensitive information like your social security number, demographics, contact details, like a phone number or address, and much more. In many ways, this information is tied to a digital profile and then collated, recorded, and shared via data brokers. There are many ways this information can be scooped up and just as many ways, this information can be shared and connected back to you and your family. The unfortunate reality is that, for most of us, we no longer have any true privacy.

The problem is exacerbated even more if you regularly use social media, share content or images online, or engage in discussions on places like Reddit or community boards. It's also scary to think about because even though we know this information is being collected, we don't necessarily know how much is available, who has it, or even what that digital profile looks like.

Read more