The Other Vaclav Klaus (Or The Other You) On Twitter

Identity Theft Easy With Twitter

The Other Vaclav Klaus became popular on Twitter once publishing joking tweets about stolen pen. Followers started to grow by geometric line. The issue is that this Other Vaclav Klaus pretends he is Mr. President himself, adding the President picture and a link to official Vaclav Klaus web pages.

A typical case happening to famous people that the Twitter Co. struggles to prevent or deal with. There is a boarder line between allowed parody vs. not allowed non-parody impersonation. Twitter's impersonation policy states the following: "Impersonation is pretending to be another person or business as entertainment or in order to deceive. Non-parody impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules." Too much vague definition enabling harm to victims.

For increased clarity twitter just offers a service for selected celebrities and politicians to verify the data and give the person an identity authorization stamp. No wonder that some of the influential guys like Robert Kiyosaki or Donald Trump had no other options except for naming themselves on Twitter "@theRealKiyosaki" or "@realDonaldTrump" and adding a authorized stamp from Twitter, once they rightly did not start to negotiate the lump sum for name buy-out from the fake users.

Not all the fake owners do it from financial reasons being inspired by huge packages coming from web domains sales. Some of them just enjoy the fact that they can for a period of time enjoy the popularity or just to feel "cool" and "funny" to contribute to spreading out the local jokes. But what about if they attract huge number of their followers and then distribute a false alarm message?

It is not anymore about identity protection of celebrities.Twitter currently claims something between 175mil. & 200 mil. registered users worldwide. So if you imagine that this social network continues with its fast development, your registered true name on twitter may become a prized possession. Once you book it ahead of time, it cannot be taken away from you. YOU own it.

But do not go overboard and don not try to register now all name possibilities. Anything to which you do not own the rights is likely to be removed when Twitter is made aware.

If you do not want to be left out with some desperate user name, because yours is already taken, act immediately.You prevent yourself from identity theft and you make it easier for friends to find you.

And do not stop just there.

Track your name on-line presence via search engines or profi tools. Act immediately to avoid spreading misinformation or reputation damage. If you are a celebrity, media person or politician, assure that you act immediately once you are a target of being "twitterjacked", as Ashton Kutcher or Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates or Condoleezza Rice experienced themselves, some hackers tweeted under their names.

Engage and build your brand on Twitter, post and share interesting tweets. This will attract many followers to you. Sooner or later your active twitter presence will eliminate the fake other ones, as readers intuitively go for quality and essence, they can only obtain from the authentic true individuals they adore.

Note: Identity theft, parodies, and copyright infringement on Twitterverse bring legal implications. Officially Twitter advises impersonation victims to contact its Terms of Service group. But depending on how quickly the profile in question is caught, it may be too late, experts say. Impersonation, parodies, and copyright infringement are likely to continue as Twitter grows. While the medium is relatively new, these issues are not. We can definitely expect interesting legal cases in this area.