Twitter to abandon 'politically biased' suggested user list

Twitter reportedly will be abandoning its suggested user list following some unfavorable attention it received last month.

When a new user signs up on Twitter, the site offers him a long list of suggested users he may be interested in following. The list consists of about 500 prominent users in various fields, including politics.

But the Center for Governmental Studies noticed the suggested users did not equally represent both Republican and Democratic political interests. One of the main points brought up was that prospective Democratic candidates in the California gubernatorial race were listed, but prospective Republican candidates were not.

At the Web 2.0 summit last month, Chief Twitter exec Evan Williams said "'The suggested user list has been controversial for a while...I desperately want to kill it or evolve it."

Today, co-founder Biz Stone followed up with the Associated Press, telling reporters, "That list will be going away...In its stead will be something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions."

Neither Stone nor Williams has presented a date for when the feature will be changed.