80-year-old media mogul, who just joined the microblogging website, had to face the ire of users after his insensitive tweet on 'broke country'
80-year-old media mogul, who just joined the microblogging website, had to face the ire of users after his insensitive tweet on 'broke country'
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Though Murdoch, who joined Twitter less than 48 hours ago and already has almost 50,000 followers, quickly deleted the message, it was preserved by some Twitter users and quickly spread around the website.
Oops, i did it again: Rupert Murdoch's tweet on being a broke country
was immediately taken down after his wife Wendi Deng ordered him to
do so. File pic
"Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!" Murdoch, who is holidaying on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, wrote.
His wife, Wendi Deng, also appears to have joined the increasingly ubiquitous microblogging site, quickly replied, "Rupert! delete tweet!!"
Within minutes the Wendi Deng account, which has not yet been verified and may not be genuine, continued, "Everyone @rupertmurdoch was only having a joke promise!!!"
Minutes later, "explaining to @rupertmurdoch about being careful with humour on line. sometimes it comes out as rude!"
About five hours later Murdoch revealed his Twitter profile was causing people close to him some angst.
"I'm getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say!" he wrote.
Mixed reactions
The decision of the octogenarian billionaire to embrace Twitter has been greeted with surprise by many, given his previous view of the internet as the home of 'porn, thievery and hackers'.
However, his first attempts to use the social-media website suggest may still be about getting the hang of it, with misplaced full stops and strange syntax abounding.
And it appears that he has also yet to win the love and adoration of some Twitter users with many expressing a range of emotions about his presence in tweets.
Initially, many assumed at first that Murdoch's account was a hoax and the media mogul was not genuinely behind the account.
The account has been "verified" by Twitter and one of the website's co-founders, Jack Dorsey, greeted him in a message on the site.
'Welcome to Twitter'
"With his own voice, in his own way, @rupertmurdoch is now on Twitter" Dorsey said.
Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, had close to 50,000 people following his tweets.
He also plugged two Fox movies and revealed his New Year's resolutions, "Try to maintain humility and always curiosity. And of course diet!"
50,000
The number of followers Rupert Murdoch has 48 hours of him joining Twitter
'Net is place for porn'
Joining Twitter would be the strongest sign yet that Murdoch has moved away from what was previously a strongly held antipathy towards the web. In a 2009 article in Vanity Fair, Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff wrote that the mogul viewed the Internet as "predatory", stating, "For him it's a place for porn, thievery, and hackers."
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