LOS ANGELES -- Next time Ashton Kutcher tweets, his management team will read it before it gets sent, putting a layer between him and his 8.2 million Twitter followers.
He's handing over his Twitter account to his personal management because he tweeted several uninformed messages about Joe Paterno's exit from Penn State on Wednesday night. That's when Kutcher defended Paterno on Twitter, thinking he was pushed out because of his age.
Those tweets went out before he learned the details of the alleged sex-abuse scandal swirling around former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Kutcher then took them back and apologized on Twitter. He followed with a blog post saying he would have his management team handle his feed as "a secondary editorial measure to ensure the quality of its content."
He's hardly the first VIP to get in trouble on Twitter. Meghan McCain accidentally revealed she was in Vegas playing hooky from a speech she'd cancelled at the last minute. Gilbert Arenas was fined by the NBA for offensive tweets, Courtney Love was sued by a woman she'd trashed on Twitter. And perhaps you've heard of former U.S. representative Anthony Weiner?
Kutcher's decision, however has turned out to be much more controversial than his misguided tweet. The idea that he would turn his account over to his publicity team seemed to be anathema to his many followers, who were among the first to embrace the way the service lets fans interact directly with celebrities.
So while Twitter has emerged as a platform for personal branding as well as conversation, the strength of the service is that it puts users in direct contact with the celebrities and brands they like. Kutcher's decision undermines that relationship.
"I am not unfollowing (Kutcher) because of his uninformed Penn St. comment," wrote one Twitter user. "I'm unfollowing him because he is no longer tweeting for himself."
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 12, 2011 A35
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