Do you monitor your brand and what’s being said about you? I’m guessing that you do – after all, you need to know what’s being said in your name, particularly in our fast-paced connected worlds.
I’m beginning to wonder about Twitter, though.
The micro-blogging company isn’t having a great time of things at the minute. From network stability issues to the recent malware attack, it’s been a testing time for Twitter.
Thanks to a new website, it could become even more testing – yet Twitter doesn’t seem particularly bothered. Should they be?
Fake-Twitter.com is a site that allows you to choose any Twitter user and make a fake Twitter status update. This is then posted like a tweet and, at a glance, looks like the real thing. If you’re not a Twitter user, you might even think it’s the genuine article.
Even if you see that it’s fake, I’m guessing that the fake tweet will show up in search engine results and look like a genuine post. You can see how damaging this could be to someone’s name or brand. So, far from being a little bit of fun, Fake-Twitter.com is ethically questionable.
So where is Twitter in all of this? So far, nowhere – yet don’t you think they should be taking action against the site, in order to protect its own users?
Even if that was legally a gray area, Twitter could take down Fake-Twitter.com for copyright breach on the site’s design, which is just like the real Twitter set up.
Maybe there’s no response yet because Twitter is busy dealing with the malware attacks on their servers – so here’s some help to the Twitter team:
- The Fake-Twitter domain is registered at GoDaddy.com under the name of Ryan Cornwell of Columbus, OH. You can get full details – address, email, etc – here.
- The site itself is hosted at DreamHost.com, which is located in Brea, CA – so there should be no issues with overseas hosting legalities.
- One of the co-creators of Fake-Twitter.com is Twitter user @topherchris – I’m sure you could ask him about Fake-Twitter.com, abuse of the site and the design copyright issue.
There’s not a lot more I can (or should) do – I’m not a Twitter employee and I have my own tasks at hand. But I am a Twitter user that cares about the Twitter community, as well as the potential damage this could do to individuals and brands, hence the collection of information for you.
It only took me about half an hour to collate all the details and do some digging on the people behind it.
The question now, Twitter, is what are you going to do about it?
How about you? Should Twitter be taking action or is Fake-Twitter.com just a harmless joke?
- Update April 13 – As of 9.00pm EST, the Fake-Twitter website is closed following an official takedown request from Twitter.
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what will they think of next?
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what will they think of next?
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Hope Twitter appreciates your help! That was very proactive of you. Good job!!
You shut them down pretty fast Mr. Brown good job
I saw “Fake Twitter” and thought it was a URL trademark infringement case waiting to happen. I wouldn’t spread or retweet anything on there, either, personally. After getting several fake e-mails from “Facebook” and “Bank of America” wanting my password.. it just leaves a bad taste.
Clearly it is a libel suit waiting to happen. Twitter should just ignore it and let the lawyers take care of it.
I tried to use it for fun, however, and it didn’t appear to work. Perhaps it will suffer the same FAIL problems that Twitter has and die on it’s own from popularity.
“Fake-Twitter.com (no-follow link) is a site that allows you to choose any Twitter user and make a fake Twitter status update. This is then posted like a tweet and, at a glance, looks like the real thing. If you’re not a Twitter user, you might even think it’s the genuine article.”
via uberVU
Something I’ve been saying for a while is, social media is not about the tools. Unfortunately, our perceived utter dependance on things like Twitter, Facebook and even our own blogs is so ingrained in the way we do things that when the tools don’t function like they should or, inevitably, malicious uses begin to come about, we do nothing more than throw up the red flags, panic, and talk about it ad nauseum – without even considering other alternatives.
At what point are we going to stop being so dependant on the creators of online tools for our success in this medium? Whether it’s Twitter buckling under it’s own weight, or Facebook continuing to be marred by poor design and bad privacy, perhaps it’s time for us to start to focus more on relationships – not only between each other but between all of the information we have made available online.
Wow Danny, I had no idea this site even existed. This is definitely problematic for individuals and brands alike. Hopefully Twitter can take some course of action against this and put an end to it.
Potential for a libel suit (but unlikely) but what should really happen is twitter go after them for trademark infringement
As someone who is trying to develop a brand through social media this could be catastrophic for me. One bad tweet could severely hurt what I’m trying to build. I think they should go after them with everything they’ve got.
We have to have a certain level of trust in our Social Media provider to maintain a certain level of integrity of our individual accounts. To me this is a really big deal!
Lisa
@lisajohnson
I think that’s the key factor in why this site is more than just a harmless prank (or, at the very least, has potential to be more than harmless).
It’s easy for RSS aggregators to trawl feeds and republish snippets of information on websites. They don’t always refer back to the originating site, either.
So now you or your client has to start digging into what has been said and maybe even start a damage limitation exercise.
While some (like Michael below) may see Fake-Twitter as just a prank site, to businesses and brands it’s potentially a PR nightmare waiting to happen.
I think you’re gettnig worked up over nothing. It’s a prank site, like all those ‘fake headline” sites that were hot (for about 5 minutes) a few years ago. People will create fake tweets for their friends, trick other friends into reading them, and have a dumb laugh.
Nobody’s going to be seriously injured by this site, and it might even be legally-defensible parody. Once you get over the surprise of reading a prank tweet, it’s terribly easy to see it’s a prank, and/or prove to your friends it’s a prank, because the domain name is fake-twiiter.
Hi Michael,
That’s not guaranteed. Depending where a story or link ends up, it’s not always clear where the originating site was. Additionally, no matter where or what the domain is, the “lack of understanding” about social media by a lot of people and businesses could cloud awareness of authenticity.
As an example, you post on your website that you may not be the Bauser that people are looking for. This may be from an inaccurate web search or just a mistake.
Now, say something is posted on the Fake Twitter site. That goes into the search engines and is then open to language or translation iterations worldwide. Perhaps particular translations don’t come out better than others and it looks like it’s a genuine statement by the person or company involved.
Should that company then have to pay thousands of dollars just to clear their name and any misinformation that arose from the fake site? Look at the incorrect information that came out from a citizen journalist story about the health of Steve Jobs. Apple’s share prices tumbled and cost the company millions of dollars.
There are ways to have fun, I agree, but I’m not sure that a site that has the potential to cost people and businesses reputations as well as dollars is the way to have it.
Twitter: ariherzog
It may be fake by the domain name, but by that logic, if someone pranked YOU about something you wouldn’t want your mother, friends, and the local police to know about you, tell me again how silly it really is.
I’m with Danny here. The site’s tasteless and stinks of legal issues waiting to take it down.
I think this is a critical over sight on Twitter’s part. Although, if I had acquired the “Fake-Twitter.com” url I would have just contacted them and tried to sell it back to them…
This shit is ridiculous. Why did you spend a half hour looking up and publishing someone’s private information to the web? Because of a fake site? Good for you. Nice eyebrow ring.
HAHAHAHAHA.
natasha for the win.
who cares?
there are more important issues to deal with.
Really? You posted a who-is info to publicly shame the creators of an admitted prank site? This is how you’re spending your time?
If I know anything about your “brand” now, I know that it’s about being butthurt.
Do you really have nothing better to do, then bust people for something as a harmless prank? And as far as hurting people goes, did you find Punk’d funny? Or any of those shows funny? It’s the same thing.
I’d seriously consider calming down and stop acting so butthurt about something that doesn’t effect you. The site says “fake-twitter” and if you can’t figure out for yourself that the site is indeed not the real thing, then perhaps you shouldn’t be on the internet if it makes you that angry.
P.S. I’d say @topherchris could pull some legal stunts on you for posting his personal information across the web, that is if anyone reads this site. Way to be a jackass.
This is about as bad as the time people got up in arms about the Microsoft Word twitter account that was the baby of a friend and I one day whilst bored. “Is Microsoft monitoring it’s brand????” “This is a libel suit waiting to happen!” “Something is WRONG on the internet!” We got the same whinging comments.
my favorite part of the internet is reading comments threads full of people who don’t know what they are talking about expounding at length on whether something is “slander,” “libelous,” etc… your readers seem deliciously stupid. just the type to grapple with the cognitive strain exerted by realizing that posts on “Fake-twitter.com” may not be real. you (and them) need to lighten up on the self-important worry over what someone might think of you if they come across a fake-twitter post in your name in the future. as was pointed out earlier, your brand management would be far better served with a reconsideration of the eye brow ring and hat in your bio pic…
If you don’t work for twitter, why do you care?
They are not going to give you a job for being a douche. Your time, and mine, could have been spent better.
By the way, nice hat, dick!
Check out this legit tweet – http://fake-twitter.com/status/2ysypjb8edxezpmm4gjp/
http://i42.tinypic.com/29dk6qh.jpg
Danny Brown – determined to self-importantly outlaw fun from the interwebs since 2009. By the awesome power of the eyebrow-ring.
PS – am I right in assuming that an accurate definition of “boutique style PR firm” would be “zero employees makes for less overhead?”
And lovely photo of yourself. Look like a myspace profile photo. Did you take it with your cell while in the WC?
Get over yourself and your “tweetdom.” Laugh a little – it just might loosen your cheeks enough for you to remove your head from your arse.
I hardly believe Twitter would blink an eye at an admitted prank site. It was obviously made in good fun, but as always, someone is out to ruin the fun for the rest of us.
If Twitter is not concerned with the site, why are you? To the point of revealing someone’s personal information all across the internet, even. Apparently you’re above the issue of personal privacy.
Dick.
Thanks for sharing your views guys, always good to get both sides of the coin.
With regards one point you make, anyone can find the WhoIs information regarding Fake-Twitter.com on the GoDaddy website. If Ryan Cornwell didn’t want this public, he could have used the private option instead.
Cheers for the fun links, pretty creative
http://tinyurl.com/czavq4
Congrats on getting Twitter to send them a take down notice. Now all of the 0 people that this site offended are avenged. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Let’s see what other benign sites we can get taken down!
As I look back on your vast archives, I realize that you’ve been working on this whole “social media/pr” thing for almost one whole year (well, 9 months, anyway). It’s okay, we all goof up sometimes.
I read the article. You posted someone’s personal information as part of your story?? Really?? That crosses threshold from just another whiny post into something more personal.
Like I said, we’ll, probably just chalk this up as a beginner’s mistake. One day you’ll realize that your writing something on the internet can cause harm to others. Wait— isn’t that why you were upset about fake twitter? Huh.
“Should they be?”
If they want to be douches, sure.
Otherwise, that’s what is called ‘parody’ and, at least in the US, is protected.
This is exactly why Apple shut down that Fake Steve Jobs site within hours of learning about it..
This comments thread is atypical of people that are in the wrong and have to come out fighting.
Looking at this post, all Danny Brown did was call out a website that could have long-term implications on people, businesses and brands. Perhaps the owners of the website would have preferred to wait until a libel suit came in from someone instead, for wrongful use of name and IP? As an IP lawyer, I can assure you that this website broke many laws both online and physical.
With regards people citing that Brown was in the wrong for sharing publicly available information – read the key terms here: “publicly available”. There is no law against sharing information that is widely available.
Twitter were well within their judiciary rights, both as a brand and a company, to take down this site for improper use.
While people may see it as fun or parody, rest assured that the courts do not take it this way, as the website owners would have found out had their site been left to run and mitigation came about as a result of false information being published.
If you’re a lawyer, you ought to know the proper definition of the word “atypical,” because you just used it improperly.
And you ought to also know that “judiciary rights” are rights conferred upon judges, courts, arbiters (i.e. the “judiciary branch”); not the rights of private citizens (which would be “legal rights”). I’m referring here, of course, to Black’s Law Dictionary, which I’m currently holding in front of me (I’m in the legal profession, too).
10 bucks says Sheila is neither an IP Lawyer nor Sheila at all, but is actually Danny Brown’s pseudonym for when he wants to justify the bunches in his panties.
Stay classy jerk. How about we post your personal information and an outline about your douchebag “PR” website.
Take off the hat and the eyebrow ring. Its not 1994.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow
‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.
And I shall hear, tho’ soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you’ll not fail to tell me that you love me
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
Yours Truly,
Your Sense of Humor
What a dick move. Seriously.
This whole “Social Media” thing that you PR and Advertising types are all about right now is such total bullshit. “The industry” will be over it in a year and on to the next “hot” thing. It’s just another way for you to fleece your clients out of money. That you take something that’s easy, fun and free and try to make a buck off of it by trying to explain to prospective clients that it’s something that it’s not while using industry “buzzwords” to obfuscate the fact that any 8th grader could (and, in reality, *is*) doing your job as well as if not better than you, is just another example of the disease that is the interactive maketing space.
Want to do the world a favor? DO something. MAKE something. CREATE. Don’t just regurgitate crap that you heard at some conference.
Oh, and 1999 called… they want their hat and eyebrow ring back.
Thanks for the tip, Ben.
The money raised by my 12for12k Challenge that so far has helped kids in war-torn countries escape the chaos, or brought to light child sexual abuse and helped children escape from the abusers, or fed more than 500,000 hungry kids in the US last month – would that count as doing, making and creating?
That certainly does count, Danny. Thanks for opening up my eyes – and keep up the great charity work! If more people were doing work like that, the world would be a better place.
Still, I stand by my statements regarding Social Media and Interactive/Digital marketing, and you’ve gotta ditch that pic!
I can actually agree with your point that a lot of it is BS, Ben. I think that has more to do with the people that are springing up around it and claiming false expertise, and shilling clients out of hard-earned money, as opposed to the medium itself. I’ll also be one of the first to call out any dubious or questionable claims about the topic.
Contrary to one (or maybe more) of the comments here, I’d never claim to be a “social media expert” or “social media guru” – how can you be when there are new tools and networks popping up all the time?
I do have over 15 years of experience in marketing and PR, which I’ll combine with social media, to offer clients a combined approach. But claiming to be an expert – no thanks.
Thanks for coming back to share your view on the charity and appreciate your kind words.
ok so you look like a douche with your eyebrow ring, and a dick with your hat… and apparently you take pictures of yourself in the washroom with your cell phone… and post it on myspace, and use it for your business blog
and you have no sense of humour…
rough day?
well at least you’ll still get some
you’re the jerk responsible for having it taken down? my goodness, some people really have a bit of sand in their vagina today don’t they! you need to relax. we already know that you SEO optimization folks are the lowest form of life on the planet, no need to cement your reputation as a monumental fool. How long until there’s a “we hate danny brown” facebook group too? i can’t imagine this will be good for your business, as you’re already the target of vitriol on two dozen blogs. let’s see how that messes up your “google juice.”
So: Danny’s a foolish, self-important killjoy whose appearance wants ridicule and who wastes his time by posting some quick item of interest? If anyone needs to calm down and put some salve on their hurt butts, it’s this string of unfunny, uninformed folks taking time out of their day to leave negative comments.
BTW, I had never heard of him before this, so it was apparently a pretty successful social media strategy, if one wants to look at it from that perspective.
Keep up the good work, sir!
does this clown danny make a living doing this? social media pr and marketing? i thought those were the nigerians who fill the spam folder in my email.
What’s going to happen when your company shows up on twibs.com with negative feedback?
Will you petition twitter to “monitor its brand” there too?
Strong opinions do not warrant puerile comments. I think everyone has a little too much time on their hands if find discoursing DB’s eye ring and hat are paramount. Millenials…He runs a charity too. A damn fine one at that. Go read a book, kids and learn some manners.
You know, I find the “He runs a charity” argument a straw man of a sort matching the immaturity of the “he looks like a douche” comments. It’s certainly not a more rigorously intellectual rhetorical technique, anyway. It’s especially not a good argument for the Danny Brown supporters if we were to take a look at what he stands to gain personally by attaching his brand prominently to every charitable press release and, I shudder, tweet.
It’s a tough time for anyone trying to make a living, and I’m sure it’s gotten tougher for PR and marketing as those tend to be the first line items cut. As someone with no dog in this fight, I just sure wish that we could avoid the embarrassing tactics in the name of scrambling to pick up business. It’s the half-truths and ulterior motives that are particularly galling and obvious. (I’m looking at you, Sheila.)
Hi Mark,
I’m not sure where the “scrambling to pick up business” reference is aimed at, but thank you for stopping by and sharing your views. Appreciate your thoughts and neutrality.
Danny Brown is hip, handsome, and uber-chill. He runs a charity to help the chrilden and has an awesome blog that segways from topic to topic beautifullly and I read it all the time. I’m with Sheila (a truely brave woman): leave Danny Brown alone! Stop sipping that Haterade.
Stop the haterade and the sophistry. It’s boring.
Sophistry (n.) When someone does what I do but without the intellectual vapidity and misspellings.