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Wednesday 23 August 2017

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John Prescott: Twitter makes public news editors

John Prescott, former deputy prime minister, has described how the social networking site Twitter has helped high-profile figures connect with the public.

Opening up: John Prescott has become almost Californian in his eagerness to share his inner demons - Hug a Prezza
John Prescott Photo: PA

Lord Prescott, who has been tweeting since January 2009, compared Twitter to traditional media, and extolled the site as the number of UK users reached 10 million.

Writing in the Guardian, the Labour peer, who has more than 132,000 followers, said more people in Britain used Twitter than bought daily national newspapers.

"Twitter is OUR media, the public have become the news editors and the Twitter trend list is the running order," he said.

"It's given me a voice and a connection to millions of people that the distorted prism of the mainstream media denied."

Lord Prescott, who is running for the position of police and crime commissioner for Humberside Police, cited the public outcry in response to the phone hacking at the News of the World as an example of the power of Twitter. The newspaper was shut down in July.

He said: "Twitter has created an important and speedy check on our newspapers - a role the Press Complaints Commission failed miserably to fulfil - and finally made press barons accountable to the people.

"Even Rupert Murdoch, who vented his spleen in Sun editorials, realised the power shift and cut out the middleman by finally joining Twitter in January."

Public movements including the Arab Spring and the Occupy protests have also used Twitter to help mobilise their activities.

Britain is the fourth biggest country for Twitter users after the US, Japan and Brazil. Lord Prescott is one of the most high profile political users with others including Conservative MP Louise Mensch and Labour MP Tom Watson.

Other widely followed Britons include the actor Stephen Fry, who has more than four million followers, and the singer Adele, who has six million followers.

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