Tory MP Louise Mensch Creates Twitter Rival

Conservative MP Louise Mensch has launched a microblogging social network to rival Twitter, after becoming increasingly “frustrated” with it.

Menshn will aim to keep conversations on topic and is designed to be a place where users can talk about politics in real-time.

The site is currently only available in the US and discussion limited to the upcoming American presidential elections later this year. There are plans to eventually broaden the range of topics to reflect users’ interests and expand to other countries, including the UK before the Olympic Games this summer.

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While Twitter has a 140 character limit on posts, Menshn increases this to 180. When new members join, they will receive one hundred randomly selected ‘subscribers’, the equivalent of Twitter followers.

The site is jointly-owned by the former Labour digital adviser Luke Bozier, who said that Menshn was intended to be a more organised place for discussion than Twitter, where hastags and keyword searches are the main tools to find posts on certain topics.

Mensch has 60,000 followers on Twitter but has recently been subject to abuse on the site. The Corby MP has insisted that the site’s name is not a pun on her surname as it is spelled differently and is instead a play on the word ‘mention’.

Last week, the government announced that victims of cyber-bullying would be able to demand the IP addresses of their tormentors without the need for a court order.

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