Saturday, October 24, 2009
SOME of the big stars on Twitter have recently retired from sharing the minutiae of their lives in bite-sized online updates.
And while celebs including Miley Cyrus and Courtney Love have given up on micro-blogging voluntarily, others have been muzzled by their employers.
Reports surfaced this week that Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers have signed contracts that demand they refrain from Tweeting about the upcoming Shrek movie, though their reps have since denied it. And the NBA and NFL have taken steps to limit the amount of updates their players dole out — particularly around game time.
"See, me, I’m about to take a little Twitter sabbatical, man," rapper Wale, who has more than 106,000 followers, said in an interview while on tour in Western Canada with Jay-Z.
"I’m on a tour bus and there’s nothing to do, so all I do is look at (Twitter). It kind of changes your perception of reality."
Courtney Love made headlines over her Twitter spat-turned-lawsuit when she called a fashion designer a liar and a thief. Love has since closed her Twitter account, as did her daughter Frances Bean Cobain, who shut down after tweeting some sharp words for Lindsay Lohan’s sister, Ali Lohan.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is embroiled in social media spats with several celebrities, including Demi Moore, who is threatening legal action and has tweeted her anger over Hilton’s publication of provocative photos of her teenage daughter.
It isn’t always just celebrities getting in Twitter trouble. In another US case, a tenant was sued for $50,000 (€33,000) by a landlord angered when she tweeted about her mouldy apartment.
And recently a pizza restaurant in the US has found the heat turned up on it for comments posted on Facebook and Twitter, with the marketing firm that was the subject of the criticism launching a $2-million lawsuit.
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