Let Bieber Trend! Justin Bieber’s fans fight back on Twitter

May 16, 2010

Twitter’s recent recalibration of its trending topics to emphasize items that have suddenly become talked about, rather than items that are always talked about on a regular basis, has had two primary effects: one is that trending topics have become more usable again in general, and the other is that former consistent trending topic Justin Bieber has all but disappeared from the list in the new formula. While few can argue with the former, Bieber’s fans are far less than happy with the latter, and today they’ve decided to fight back by pushing two new phrases into the trending topics: #letbiebertrend and BIEBER TREND. By removing the word “Justin” and substituting the word “trend” they’ve managed to create what Twitter’s new trending algorithm is a new topic of discussion unrelated to “Justin Bieber” which has allowed them to sidestep the new algorithm entirely.

For his part, Bieber hasn’t commented publicly on today’s new trending topics revelation, as his last tweet came last night. A quick sampling of the various tweets which have caused “BIEBER TREND” to begin trending reveals it to be a largely coordinated effort among fans, with some users even changing their profile picture to the “protest” icon depicted above. Additionally, some Twitter users who profess to dislike Bieber’s frequent trending are inadvertently helping push him up the list with tweets along the lines of “I wish BIEBER TREND would disappear from the trending topics,” in apparent ignorance of the effect of such tweets on the trending topics.

If Twitter’s intention with the new trending topics algorithm was to keep this kind of coordinated fan-jacking from working, then it looks like they’re going to have to tweak the formula further.