Did tweets play an important role in bringing on the spill? THE real start of the leadership challenge was on Thursday, March 14, a full week earlier than the main event. It wasn't called by Simon Crean, Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard. It was ignited by Twitter. Twitter was abuzz with rumours a delegation of MPs were meeting in the Prime Minister's office. By 3.30pm the traditional media were on to it, scrambling for information and relying on tweets to break the news of the allegedly impending spill.