Anyone Can Read @GovernorPerry's Tweets ... Whether He Likes It Or Not
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, March 1 2011
Texas Gov. Rick Perry doesn't want some journalists following his personal Twitter account. Photo: Ed Schipul / FlickrUpon entering office, some politicans hand their Twitter accounts over to a government staff for public use. Others create a separate account and hang on to their private handle.
But how many keep their private handle and then block the people they wouldn't want seeing an inconvenient tweet?
So far, it looks like that's just Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has blocked the Dallas Morning News' Tom Benning and, it seems, a few other reporters as well. This means that Benning won't see Perry's 140-character missives in his personal Twitter feed — but the gubernatorial tweetstream remains accessible to Benning and anyone else who'd care to see it by visiting the webpage for Perry's account.
This raised questions for Benning, who wanted to know if Perry used state resources to manage the Twitter feed that he was blocked from viewing. A state spokeswoman told him no, that's Perry's private account. He uses it to share pictures of puppies and promote Texas products; on the account, he shares links to separate accounts for official business and for his campaign. Perry's strategy allows him to avoid this issue and others, such as what to do with handles upon his departure from the statehouse and arrival anywhere else. No commingling of public and private resources means no real issue, something other governors are also trying to wrap their heads around.
The way Perry has structured is social media presence, blocking reporters from his personal Twitter account is akin to turning them away if they were to knock on the door of his house. If he lived in a glass house.
Benning has more, including links to his colleagues' past exploration of Perry's blocking policy.
Perry has said he blocks people who attack him or who use foul language — but Texas political blogger Rachel Farris and Austin American Statesman tech writer Omar Gallaga previously noticed that he tends to block progressive bloggers, too.
While this may work as a political statement, it won't keep Perry's opponents from tracking his comments online; according to an update to Benning's original blog post, an instructor at TCU has created a workaround to send an email every time Perry posts to his personal Twitter account. So it's sort of like turning reporters away from the front door of his glass house, if the house had no door.