On Twitter, No One Knows You’re a Dog
Remember the old New Yorker cartoon from the early 1990s (you can see it here) that poked fun at the notion that so many people lie or fib about themselves on the Internet? Everyone got a big laugh out of it because it was not only funny but also dead-on accurate. Yes, lots of people DO lie about themselves on the Internet for all sorts of selfish reasons.
Fast-forward that thought to 2009, when Twitter is the rage and just about anyone can sign up and claim that they are just about anyone. Basketball great Shaquille O’Neal found this out the hard way when he tried to sign up for a Twitter account and found out that there were upwards of 30 other Twitter users claiming they were Shaq. He ended up signing up for a Twitter handle as The Real Shaq so he wouldn’t be confused with all those fake Shaqs who were Twittering up a storm.
That pretty much sums up the problem with Twitter and the Internet in general: Users can be totally anonymous, hide out and say whatever they want no matter how inflammatory, libelous or wrong.
I’ve always felt that the anonymous nature of the Internet was one of its great shortcomings, mainly because so many people hide behind the cloak of anonymity and write all sorts of vile things that they would probably never say to a person if they were forced to publicly stand behind them.
Well, leave it to Twitter to take a very small but meaningful step toward greater civility on the Internet. It’s going to “crack down on celebrity impersonators who post messages on the service as if they were the real thing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, by introducing “a verification system to ensure that famous people are who they say they are.”
“Twitter has long been a playground for people pretending to be Hollywood stars or high-profile political figures,” the Chronicle noted. “It left other users confused about whether they were actually following updates by their favorite artists and athletes or just some 12-year-old with too much time on his hands.”
But Twitter got broadsided when St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa filed suit against the company last month in San Francisco Superior Court “for allowing an impostor to create an account in his name. (The account was subsequently deleted.)” the Chronicle reports. “Musician Kanye West has also complained. An account in the name of the Dalai Lama was suspended earlier this year.”
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a blog post “that the company will start testing a verification service this summer for public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes and other well-known individuals at risk of impersonation. Their accounts will get a verification seal so users will be able to see that they are legitimate.”
Although this isn’t a big move by Twitter, it’s certainly a step in the right direction and it may be the beginning of reasonable standards that help clamp down on the Wild West nature of the Internet.
Plus—and here’s the workforce management component—it’s critically needed if Twitter is really going to be taken seriously as a recruiting and talent management tool. It is also a step toward eliminating one of the potential legal issues that make the use of Twitter something that can be dangerous if allowed to be used unchecked by workers on the job.
I said this back in February and it is as true now as it was then: No matter how cool the social networking tool, the rapid growth of technology brings along and equally rapid growth of technology-related legal issues. It’s a good idea for all managers to get out in front of them before they have a chance to overrun you.
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