The Tweet Murdoch Took down ... Fast

"With his own voice, in his own way, @rupertmurdoch is now on Twitter," Mr Dorsey said.

Within 48 hours hours of the account being created Mr Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, had close to 40,000 people following his tweets. He ruminated on Saint Barthelemy - "too many people. Thoughts best kept private around here. Like London!" - and the recently published biography of Steve Jobs - "interesting but unfair. Family must hate."

He also gave his support to Rick Santorum in the upcoming Iowa presidential primary. He also plugged two Fox movies and revealed his new year's resolutions: "try to maintain humility and always curiosity. And of course diet!" His wife appeared to receive several message telling her the man who tried to hit Mr Murdoch with a cream pie during his testimony at the British phone hacking inquiry last year, Jonathan May-Bowles, was also on Twitter.

"Thank you for messages telling me the man with the pie who attacked my @rupertmurdoch is on twitter but I dont want to know more," she replied.

Mr Murdoch has so far subscribed to the tweets of only four people: Mr Dorsey, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Pincus, Google co-founder Larry Page and Lord Sugar.

Greetings from the Twitterrati

"Great that @rupertmurdoch has discovered all you need is 140 characters instead of 140 newspapers."

"Welcome to Twitter ... @rupertmurdoch - I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail."

"Really hoping this isn't some try-before-you-buy deal."

"I'm waiting for @rupertmurdoch to inform us which tweet is the most humble in his life."

"Hey check it out, Monty Burns is finally on Twitter! Wait, what?"

"Either @rupertmurdoch is genuinely now on Twitter, or some disgruntled ex-NOTW journo just won the hacking Olympics." This tweet refers to the News of the World, the paper that Mr Murdoch closed down following the hacking scandal.