Confusing the real world with the slice of reality reflected by one’s social media accounts is a mistake political reporters and partisans make every day. Algorithms and selection bias have conspired to drastically narrow the world wide web for must of us.

But for many of the tech industry’s moguls, the world reflected in their Twitter timelines is bizarrely similar to the bizarre societies they have created in their companies: very, very male.

Until Tuesday morning, for example, Elon Musk followed zero women on Twitter, Motherboard reported. (Following publication of the Motherboard story, Musk followed a new account, that of GQ magazine writer Caity Weaver.)

The Tesla CEO reacted to the report defensively, accusing the publication of engaging in “phoney PC police axe-grinding”.

@motherboard I use twitter for news orgs. My Insta has same women as men. What's up with the phoney PC police axe-grinding? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2016

But his choices do provide a certain amount of insight into what he, as an individual, finds interesting, and perhaps it isn’t surprising that a leader in an industry notoriously averse to hiring women also appears to be uninterested in the views of women as expressed on Twitter.

The Guardian examined the Twitter accounts of a number of male tech leaders who follow about 250 accounts or fewer (for ease of counting). While all of the accounts bested Musk, they all followed between two and eleven times as many men as women.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, follows 267 accounts on Twitter. Of those, 238 appear to be men. He follows nearly as many Twitter Eggs (15) as women (21).

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, followed the most women (39) of any of the accounts examined by the Guardian, though that is still half the number of men he follows (78) out of a total of 165 accounts.

Other accounts the Guardian examined:

Apple CEO Tim Cook follows 51 accounts: 20 men, four women and the rest brands

follows 51 accounts: 20 men, four women and the rest brands Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky follows 92 accounts, including 58 men and 12 women

follows 92 accounts, including 58 men and 12 women Netflix CEO Reed Hastings follows 60 accounts, including 44 men and 10 women

follows 60 accounts, including 44 men and 10 women Microsoft founder Bill Gates follows 169 accounts, including 57 men and 12 women

follows 169 accounts, including 57 men and 12 women Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt follows 235 accounts, including 153 men and 25 women

follows 235 accounts, including 153 men and 25 women Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla follows 257 accounts, including 175 men and 25 women

Two tech billionaires who have taken a different tack are Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and seasteading enthusiast Peter Thiel. Both moguls choose to follow no one on Twitter. Thiel has tweeted just once, about his book, while Bezos has tweeted 61 times, primarily about his rocket.



While these results may not be surprising, they are disappointing. Silicon Valley companies frequently claim that they are committed to diversity, and one step toward achieving that is seeking out the voices and opinions of people who are different than you. Social media is a relatively simple way to expose oneself to new ideas and new people.

So Elon, Tim, Bill, Brian, Eric, et al: here is a list of a few women in or around the tech industry you might want to try following on Twitter. They are not all CEOs, but they are all interesting tweeters who can help make your timeline look a little more like the world outside your companies.