Brits Take on Twitt-iquette

British government takes 20 pages to tell public servants how they should, and shouldn't, use the 140-character messaging service

By JACKSON WEST
Updated 11:30 AM PST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is no threat to Ashton Kutcher in the number of followers on Twitter, for better or worse. (Worse.)
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Looking for some tips on Twitt-iquette? Then look no further than the guidelines issued by the government of the United Kingdom to its civil servants.

For instance, departments are advised against "tweeting" more than once in half an hour -- so they don't flood the service (and risk the dreaded unfollow or block).

Agencies are also urged to use Twitter to contact constituents in an emergency.

While casual, colloquial language is recommended, the Associate Press report mentions no ban of "tweener," or chat speak like "Vote 4 PM Brown 2day! New Labour rulez!"

One can only hope Queen Elizabeth will do something to protect the mother tongue from such vulgarity with a royal decree or something.

Jackson West would learn Italian if Silvio Berlusconi started a Twitter account.

First Published: Jul 28, 2009 10:32 AM PST

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