Forget the games, the real World Cup action is on Twitter, where 580,000 tweets traveled per minute during Germany's fifth goal against Brazil. #BRAvGER was the most popular hashtag, and #WorldCup had been consistently trending.

The game also was the most highly tweeted in sports history, with 35.6 million tweets-significantly more than the Super Bowl's 24.9 million. A heat map shows Twitter traffic around the world during the game.

Twitter activity had its consequences. Rumors about riots in Brazil had some traction, and I wonder whether all of the negative posts hurt an already depressed nation. Here's a sampling: 

• Russell Brand (@Rusty Rockets): "It's gone from might win the World Cup to maybe we should get other jobs. It's like watching an accident."
• Brick Tamland (@BrickCh4News): "Brazil, where'd you learn to play defense? At the toilet store?"
• Rob Burnett (@RobBurnett): "Yeah but they're *really* good at singing their anthem."

I tried to encourage more positive tweets and did get a response from the Ministry of Tourism.

Discussion Starters:

• What, if anything, is the significance of this news? How do numbers of tweets compare to, say, TV viewers? 
• What is @VisitBrasil saying in its response tweet? What's your view of how the organization handled the #BeautifulBrazil tweet?