Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Fake Twitter Accounts Wreak Havoc; How To Get Them Down

On trade deadline day (which I affectionately now refer to as The Day That Marty Reasoner Built), there were a few fake Twitter accounts that were reporting erroneous trades.

There was one from the fake Nick Kypreos that reported that the Canadiens had traded for Dustin Penner. I knew that was not the case, as Habs GM Pierre Gauthier usually spends his trade deadline day counting and recounting cookies in the press room. However, the report threw many for a loop.

Impersonations or fake Twitter accounts are not uncommon. For this reason, Twitter has an Impersonation Policy. In my practice I have removed many an account. Click here for the Policy.

Twitter's policy provides that "impersonation is pretending to be another person or entity in order to deceive. Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules and may result in permanent account suspension."

In order to investigate the impersonation, Twitter needs the following information as provided by the person being impersonated or his or her legal rep: (1) username of the person impersonating you (or the URL of their profile page); (2) real person's first and last name; (3) real person's Twitter username; (4) address and phone #; and (5) description of the content and how it constitutes a misappropriation of personality.

So to those people out there who have realized that in some commercial situations imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery, you can fix this.

As well, Twitter will allow the real people to certify their accounts as the real ones. When they do, you will see a check mark beside their name.

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