Twitter Scrutinized In CA. Gov.'s Race (gives an edge to Democrats over Republicans)

[Kadie]

Twitter Scrutinized In Gov.'s Race
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom On Suggested User List
POSTED: 3:33 pm PDT October 27, 2009

UPDATED: 3:58 pm PDT October 27, 2009


SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- When people sign up for Twitter, the popular social-networking site presents a list of suggested users to follow, driving significant traffic to sports figures, celebrities, politicians and other prominent posters.

In California, the list has attracted the attention of political watchdogs because Twitter appears to give an edge to Democrats over Republicans when suggesting politicians to follow. That raises questions about whether Twitter should change its policy at a time when the site is catching on as a popular recruiting tool for candidates.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is on the suggested user list and has 1.2 million followers. His likely opponent for the Democratic nomination, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has 960,000 followers even though he is not a declared candidate and has posted the fewest tweets of all the gubernatorial hopefuls.

None of the three Republican candidates are on the list, and all have fewer than 5,000 followers.

"It's a dumb move," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, an independent nonpartisan think tank in Los Angeles. "Somebody should have been thinking that it's pretty obvious you don't put just the Democrats on it."

more...
http://www.kcra.com/politics/21443075/detail.html

[zbdent]

1. ACORN down, and now the Repugs will be demanding investigations

of twitter ...

:eyes: