Kanye West shouts at Twitter, gets immediate response
By Dave Parrack
Today, we’ve learned that Kanye West doesn’t like Twitter, but does love the caps lock button on his computer keyboard. We’ve also learned that shouting in public gets Twitter’s attention so maybe those against the @replies changes should break out the loudhailers.
Twitter is growing at a phenomenally fast rate. Not only has the micro-blogging service captured the imagination of ordinary people like you and me but celebrities have already clamored to set an account up, tweet the minutiae of their lives, and grab as many followers as they can.
However, not all celebrities are obsessed with connecting with their fans as the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Stephen Fry. In fact, Kanye West isn’t a fan of Twitter at all – partly because he’s too busy to bother with writing regular 140-character messages and partly because a fake Kanye West account managed to grab more than 1 million followers without being flagged for deletion by the company.
This led Kanye to go on a bit of a rant on his blog yesterday. He may not have enough time to write 140-character updates to his fans but he has got time to write a 160-word plus rant in the direction of Twitter, the people in charge, and the fans who had the temerity to set fake accounts up.
The rant in full, all in CAPS:
(This spaz comes courtesy of losers making fake Kanye West Twitter accounts) I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER… WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I’M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I’M NOT AND I’M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN’T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF. THE PEOPLE AT TWITTER KNOW I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER SO FOR THEM TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO POSE AS ME AND ACCUMULATE OVER A MILLION NAMES IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DECEITFUL TO THERE FAITHFUL USERS. REPEAT… THE HEADS OF TWITTER KNEW I DIDN’T HAVE A TWITTER AND THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHICH ACCOUNTS HAVE HIGH ACTIVITY ON THEM. IT’S A FUCKING FARCE AND IT MAKES ME QUESTION WHAT OTHER SO CALLED CELEBRITY TWITTERS ARE ACTUALLY REAL OR FAKE. HEY TWITTER, TAKE THE SO CALLED KANYE WEST TWITTER DOWN NOW …. WHY? … BECAUSE MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS LOUD!!!!!!!!!
Twitter has responded by suspending “due to strange activity” the @kanyewest account the real Kanye West was complaining about. So clearly that’s the way to get the 30-strong Twitter team to do something – shout very loudly, swear a few times, and well, be Kanye West.
This does raise questions about username squatting and how much of a problem fake Twitter accounts are. But above all, it’s a funny interchange between a clearly annoyed rapper and the current darling of social media.
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on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
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May 14th, 2009
I’d never heard of Kanye West until just now, but he’s spot on about Twitter – what an incredible waste of time! Rather than encouraging creativity, it’s a creativity destroyer.
May 14th, 2009
I couldn’t give a fsck about Twitter or ESPECIALLY some no talent jackass like Kanye West.
Nor do I believe he has any right to expect this takedown. I’m disappointed Twitter would take down an account because of a profane rant by a prima dona on a blog. I suspect there is far more to this than has made it to public view.