Twitter Reportedly Shutters GOP Account That Pretended To Represent Democratic Candidate
Twitter has shut down an account run by New Hampshire’s Republican Party that purported to represent a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The fake account demonstrates the kind of challenges social media companies will increasingly be confronted with this election season as they’re faced with deception — and cracking down on it.
The deceptive account in this case purported to represent candidate Dan Feltes and featured a photo similar to the one used on his campaign website, according to the Journal. On Wednesday, just two weeks before the gubernatorial primary, the account started to turn on the candidate.
The state’s Democratic Party reported the fake account to Twitter, and the account was permanently suspended Thursday for violating the company’s policy against impersonation.
“Twitter accounts that pose as another person, brand, or organization in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under Twitter’s impersonation policy,” according to the rules.
A spokesman for the state GOP, Joe Sweeney, admitted to the Journal that he ran the account — but accused the Democrats of pulling the same kind of stunt in the past. A representative of the Democratic Party told the Journal that members have operated “parody” GOP accounts — but they were marked “a project of the @NHDems.” Twitter allows parody accounts.
Also on HuffPost
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
