By John Romano
UPDATE: As of 12:23 today Republicans Meg Whitman and Newt Gingrich have been added to the “Suggested Users” list along with the “Riverside County GOP.”
LOS ANGELES (YBH) – New users to Twitter are often given suggestions of people to follow to begin building their Twitter lists. The list is comprised of celebrities, sports figures, TV shows, and a few politicians.
Twitter chooses S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom over Republican challengers.
Twitter newbies are given the suggestion of both Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown when they sign-up. Both are Democrats running for the Governor’s house in California next year. Mr. Newsom has garnered 1.2 million followers to date while Mr. Brown has close to a million.
Media watchdogs are beginning to take notice and have complained that none of the three Republicans running for the top job in Sacramento are on the “Suggested Users” list. All three have less than 5000 followers to date.
Former Google Executive and Twitter founder Biz Stone states that he and a handful of other top Twitter executives choose who makes the list. They see the list as akin to “Staff Recommendations” at Barnes & Noble. The list of suggested people is close to 500 at present.
The controversy reflects Twitter’s new found power as a potential shaper of opinion in American politics. Many executives at Google have wrestled with this privilege for years. Many are huge Democrat supporters, and the firm has taken strides to keep their personal opinions out of Google’s search results and news feeds. An endeavor that has been successful for the most part.
Users who make the suggested users list tend to receive an incredible boost in followers.
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John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
