Politicians in a flap again
The campaigning for the London Mayor elections is in full swing and the incumbent Boris Johnson came under fire earlier this month when he changed the name of his Twitter account from MayorOfLondon to BackBoris2012. "Unfair" shouted his opponents, but if it is his own Twitter account, surely he can rename it if he wants to?
Well, that's the crux of the matter. Who owns the Twitter account "Mayor of London"? Does it belong to Boris Johnson, or does it belong to the Mayor's Office? If it is the latter then it is against election rules for it to be used to send election communications. Regardless of who set it up originally, when you look at the contents of this account, it doesn't consist of the obtuse ramblings of Johnson. Instead, it is very much a series of announcements about Greater London issues both from the Mayor's Office such as letting people know that Blackfriar's tube station had reopened, along with selected tweets from other London organisations such as London 2012, the Cycle Hire scheme, Big Issue, and Metropolitan Police. The ones originating from the Mayor's Office all are labelled "Boris Johnson" which somewhat gives the impression that he thinks them up and types them all in personally, but all in all, it is a very well produced and informative Twitter for a London audience.
This Twitter account is managed by the Greater London Authority (GLA), a publically funded body. It has an impressive number of followers, over a quarter of a million, and political opponents were rightly outraged when all those followers suddenly found they were now following "Back Boris 2012" and a message saying it was "New name, same Boris" which gives Johnson all too much credit for the contents of the tweets.
The Johnson camp initially argued that the account was owned by Twitter, not the GLA, that it was Johnson's initiative originally, and that it was Johnson's popularity which had attracted those followers. It also claimed that it had renamed the account in the interests of transparency, and that people who did not wish to be associated with Back Boris 2012 could unsubscribe if they wished. However, in the face of mounting criticism, the name was quickly changed back to its original MayorOfLondon.
It should be noted that Gordon Brown's team, whilst he was PM, had set up similar sites and feeds for "Number 10" but did not try to claim ownership of that feed during the general election, and that it continued as the official feed of the PM after David Cameron took office.
Once again it is a reminder to us all that when we set up domain names, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube channels, even telephone numbers, with the intention of using them to promote the business or organisation, we need to be absolutely clear that these are assets belonging to the organisation, not to the individuals who set them up or run them on a daily basis.
27th March 2012
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