Ashton Kutcher hands control of Twitter account to management team after being slammed for football coach posts

He famously became the first Twitter user to reach one million followers, and has always been a staunch advocate of the popular social networking site.

But it seems Ashton Kutcher has finally fallen out of love with Twitter. 

The 33-year-old actor today handed over the control of his account to his management team after scores of Twitter users blasted him for posting support for a football coach caught up in a child abuse scandal.

On a long explanatory post on his blog, he wrote: 'Up until today I have posted virtually everyone of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual.

'While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I'm going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of it's content.'

The Two and a Half Men star went on to explain that he did not have the full facts before posting the tweet about the sacking of Pennsylvania State University coach Joe Paterno.

At about 12.30am this morning, he wrote on his official account: 'How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye [the University of Iowa football team] fan I find it in poor taste.'

Within minutes the term Jo Pa, a misspelt nickname of the legendary football coach, was trending on the social networking site as thousands of users ripped into the Two and a Half Men star.

His comment came after the news that Paterno, Penn State head coach for 46 years, had been fired for allegedly covering up sexual abuse by the school's former football defence coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Gaffe: Ashton Kutcher said he did not have the full facts of the story when he made his comment

On his blog, Kutcher went into a further explanation of the offending tweet, writing: 'Last night after returning home from work I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired.  

'Having no more information than that, I assumed that he had been fired due to poor performance as an ageing coach. 

'As a football fan and someone who had watched Joe's career move from that of legend/innovator to a head coach that fulfilled his duty in the booth, I assumed that the university had let him go due to football related issues.  

'With that assumption (how dare I assume) I posted a tweet defending his career.  I then when about my evening, had some dinner, did a little work, and about an hour later turned on ESPN where I got the full story. 

Celebration: Ashton and wife Demi Moore celebrated with champagne after Ashton beat CNN to became the first person to achieve one million followers

'I quickly retracted and deleted my previous post, however that didn't seem enough to satisfy

Twitter quitters: Stars who have fallen foul of the social networking site

• Miley Cyrus quit in 2009, posting a rap video to explain her reasons, which included 'wanting to keep my private life private.' She returned under a different account earlier this year
• James Franco proclaimed 'Social media is over'  before leaving Twitter this year, revealing 'certain companies' he worked with had been upset at some of his tweets
• Lily Allen initially quit in 2009 after her now husband Sam Cooper got 'really angry' at her for spending too much time on Twitter. She's now back on the site 
• John Mayer told fans he left Twitter last year after becoming a 'tweetaholic.' He said: 'I was always writing on it.'
• Stephen Fry hinted about leaving Twitter in 2009 after a fan called his tweets 'boring.' He also threatened to quit last year after claiming he was misquoted in a magazine interview

people's outrage at my misinformed post.  I truly am sorry if I offended anyone and more over am going to take action to ensure that it doesn't happen again.'

Before making the announcement to his eight million followers, Kutcher attempted to limit the damage by posting on Twitter.

'As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case. 

'As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won't happen again.'

Last night, many tweeters pointed out that Kutcher, together with his wife Demi Moore, founded the the DNA Foundation, which specifically aims to 'end child sex slavery'.

Many simply labelled Kutcher an idiot for his view. After the barrage of complaints, Kutcher deleted the tweet and recanted his stance. 

'This is an insane story, I just heard paterno was fired, getting the rest of the story now... Wow,' he wrote. He added: 'Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet! Didn't have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes

Kutcher famously reached one million Twitter followers back in 2009, beating out CNN in a hotly contested race.

'Where’s the champagne, where’s the champagne?' Kutcher said on his Ustream.TV Web feed after winning by 2,000 followers. 'We’ve gotta pop the cork on this folks.'

Doorstep speech: Joe Paterno, Penn State coach for 46 years, pictured with his wife Sue, was sacked from his post

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2060045/Ashton-Kutcher-hands-Twitter-account-management-Penn-State-Joe-Paterno-posts.html#ixzz1dO1nC25V