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The dark side of social media?
September 30th, 2010
Ashton Kutcher
MSN Celebrity yesterday suggested that Twitter was protecting actor and internet entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher who has been accused of cheating on his wife, the actress Demi Moore, a feed they picked up from an excellent article on Newsweek.com http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/kausfiles/2010/09/27/is-twitter-protecting-ashton-kutcher.html?from=rss
Whether the allegations are true or not, if Twitter is manipulating the posts and deleting any that refer to the allegations then it is a very worrying development.
Kutcher is a big player on Twitter, with nearly six million followers yet his message stream at @APlusK does not show the mixture of pro and anti comments one would expect.
Social media was created in an atmosphere of openness and welcome feedback. If the message is going to be manipulated by the platform owners then the whole premise on which social media has been established – and flourished – may be in jeopardy.
If our messages are being monitored, manipulated or even being removed then social media has moved into a new, darker place.
Tags: marketing, social media, twitter