Go ogle Murdoch's twitter chopping block: Obama, pirates, Google

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 16 January 2012 21:27

Opinion and Analysis

A series of tweets by über content creator and empire builder Rupert Murdoch, has caused online controversy by blaming Google for helping to allow piracy to occur, while accidentally claiming universal anger at Optus when he meant POTUS Obama.

Rupert Murdoch's entry into the online world of self-publishing has certainly caused a lot of controversy and global interest since arriving onto the scene since the 1st of January this year.

From the fake Wendi Deng scandal to a series of both interesting and controversial thoughts and statements, it's clear that Mr Murdoch is enjoying the ability to share his thoughts and publish them on an instant and global basis.

I guess it's interesting to note that he didn't do something similar when he owned MySpace, something that would have required much greater input and customisation, and would have been much more time consuming, much as Facebook is today. Mr Murdoch did state

Instead he has chosen to use what is clearly the world's simplest and most user-friendly publishing system - perhaps he'll end up liking it so much he'll buy the company, Remington-style, or perhaps he'll just stay a user.

Either way, Rupert Murdoch is certainly using Twitter now, and whatever you think of him, and whether you agree with any of his views or not, his tweets certainly do make for very interesting reading, and give you an instant and direct insight into what he says he is thinking.

Many online publications have commented on his tweets, whether focusing on his attacks on Google (via The Telegraph) or his attacks on POTUS or 'President of the United States' Barack Obama (via Reuters), although he has also spoken about technology and CES, other politicians, the high cost of popcorn and soda at the cinema, the AFI and blackjack.

Meanwhile, SmartCompany says that there are lessons for social media-savvy SMEs from Rupert Murdoch's tweets against Google, warning people to be careful what they say when using social media services.

Some of Mr Murdoch's controversial tweets have included:

'So Obama has thrown in his lot withSilicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.'

"Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying."

The Telegraph quotes a Google spokesperson stating: "This is just nonsense. Last year we took down 5 million infringing web pages from our search results and invested more than $60 million in the fight against bad ads. Like many other tech companies, we believe that there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking US companies to censor the Internet."

Several interesting very recent Murdoch Tweets including more on Google and President Obama on page two, please read on!