It is not unusual for social networks to face impersonators or “fakers”. These people take the personalities of popular people or entities and then they create an account with the name. The positive side is that this provides free viral marketing for the person or entity. But on the downside, it can damage their reputation without them knowing it.
Lately, Twitter has faced a lot of complaints from popular people. Some of these are Kanye West and actor Ewan McGregor who had impersonators on Twitter. It is a good thing that Twitter always acts quickly once it gets a complaint. However, acting quickly will not be enough for Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.
Apparently, LaRussa decided to take the matter to court. After all, unlike the past celebrities who only had fake profiles, LaRussa also has a fake personality. It seems that his impersonator is not there to promote his name but to destroy it. With this, LaRussa decided to sue Twitter for trademark infringement.
But is it really Twitter’s fault? According to LaRussa, it is. They are the one who own the site in the first place. If only they had moderated the accounts, a thing like this will not happen. He also made a claim that Twitter has benefited from his fake account with the message “Tony LaRussa is using Twitter”.
The problem here is that trademark infringement can only happen if one party has proven to have benefitted with the sheer use of the name. However, Twitter or the account owner did not seem to have gained anything of monetary value from using his name. It is just created as a joke as the account’s profile shows “bio parodies are fun for everyone”.
But does this mean that we should let Twitter impersonation slide? Of course not! It is still identity theft and should be taken care of. I guess this is also a wake-up call for Twitter to start monitoring the accounts being created on their website.
Tags: Twitter