Many media outlets initially reported that the Supreme Court largely upheld the ACA after the decision was handed down. However, CNN, Fox News and Huffington Post Politics' Twitter feeds and television broadcasts reported that the individual mandate, a key part of the law, was found unconstitutional. The conflicting information left Twitter users baffled as they tried to sort out the truth.
After the dust settled, it was realized that the court upheld the individual mandate, leaving some networks to issue corrections and retractions.
Many citizens, court-watchers and journalists were relying on Twitter to deliver an instant and accurate analysis of the Supreme Court's decision (television cameras were not allowed inside the court). However, a select few warned that the decision -- which analyzed the constitutionality of a 2,700 page bill -- would not lend itself well to such rapid study and reporting.
Those commentators were largely correct in their fears, as Twitter failed to serve as a reliable mechanism for delivering an accurate analysis the second the ruling was made available. Later reports, including analysis on liveblogs such as SCOTUSblog, proved to be much more accurate and valuable than the initial chaos on Twitter (SCOTUSblog was also enormously popular -- it had more than 500,000 watchers online and was broadcast live by CSPAN-3).
To view the Twitter healthcare chaos for yourself, view the Storify below, curated by Mashable's Stephanie Haberman.
[View the story "Hyper Confusion Hits Twitter as Healthcare Ruling Drops" on Storify]