Ashton Kutcher leaves Twitter after child molestation storm

Iconic Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno, 84, was sacked this week by the board of trustees for allegedly turning a blind eye to child molestation carried out by his underling, defensive coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been arrested on charges of molesting and raping eight young boys over 15 years. One victim was just 10.

"How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste," Kutcher, 33, wrote in a tweet that has since been removed.

The Two and a Half Men star was immediately rounded on by his followers, who saw it as an incredibly ill-judged remark considering Kutcher's public campaigning against child sex trafficking.

Kutcher said he tweeted before he had the full story.

"As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case," Kutcher later tweeted.

"As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won't happen again."

In a more detailed blog post explaining the flub, Kutcher said his Twitter profile had become "to [sic] big to be managed by a single individual" and announced he was turning over the management of his feed to a company called Katalyst Media, which he co-founded, "to ensure the quality of it's [sic] content".

Kutcher wrote that Twitter used to be a platform where people could say what was on their minds and the community would quickly correct factual errors, but it had now become a "mass publishing platform" where an errant tweet could make global news.

"Last night after returning home from work I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired. Having no more information than that, I assumed he had been fired due to poor performance as an aging coach," wrote Kutcher.

"With that assumption (how dare I assume) I posted a tweet defending his career. I then when [sic] about my evening, had some dinner, did a little work, and about an hour later turned on ESPN where I got the full story.

"I quickly went back on my twitter account and found a hailstorm of responses calling me an 'idiot' and several other expletives that I've become accustom [sic] to hearing for almost anything I post."

Kutcher reiterated that he was sorry he had offended anyone.

Independent social media expert Thomas Tudehope said even the most seasoned operators and social media aficionados could feel the wrath of the online world in 140 characters.

"Ashton's mistake, which he later corrected and deleted, is a lesson for everyone regardless if you have 10 followers or 10 million – think before you tweet," said Tudehope.

"Instantaneous tweeting has become a standard modus operandi of the internet – online conversations are measured in minutes not hours. Not wanting to miss the action and the ability to insert oneself into a debate users often tweet without full knowledge of the story or circumstance."

Tudehope said Kutcher's mistake had shaken the credibility of one of Twitter's biggest advocates and Kutcher's decision to stop tweeting until he could figure out how to manage his account properly was "a smart move".

"But, the simple fact remains – you can't manage good judgment," he said.

James Griffin, partner with social media intelligence firm SR7, said the incident would be a "reality check" for celebrity and high profile Twitter users. He said the ability to reach millions of people using social media came with responsibilities that previously did not exist.

"It is unfortunate that he has taken this step in handing over the day-to-day running of his Twitter account to a professional firm as it in many senses is no longer true to the medium," said Griffin.

"Turning his back on such power may be a difficult thing for him to sustain and perhaps we may yet see a return to twitter by @Aplusk."

Tiphereth Gloria, social media strategist with George Patterson Y&R, said Kutcher's early uptake of Twitter drew many celebrities to the medium, including Oprah. She said he was the first to reach one million followers in April 2009.

But the medium had matured over the last two years and Kutcher's mistake could land him in hot water with his TV network bosses. Gloria said his decision to hand management of his feed to an agency was probably directed at them.

"It's his way of saying 'I will stop and think before I fire off a tweet'," she said.

"This would be aimed at the TV network bosses. It's a natural social media crisis response to prevent it escalating further out of control."

Gloria said it was sad that Kutcher was "losing his spontaneity" because the "direct connection to Ashton's life rather than a sanitised third party filtered version" was what made him worth following in the first place.

In July, Kutcher was involved in a heated spat with the Village Voice paper after it wrote a cover story making fun of him for spreading misinformation about sex slavery.

The headline on the story was "Real Men Get Their Facts Straight", a parody of the title of Kutcher's ad campaign, "Real Men Don't Buy Girls".

Kutcher responded by trying to organise a boycott of the Village Voice over its Backpage.com classifieds site, which has been accused of facilitating sex trafficking.

Kutcher's campaign was partly successful as at least one advertiser, American Airlines, announced it would stop advertising with the Village Voice.

This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses