Beware fake social media accounts, metro warns
"We wish to state it clearly that the said accounts are not the city’s official account.”
Residents were warned against fake social media accounts masquerading as the City of Tshwane’s official Twitter account.
“These fake accounts are misleading members of the public by spreading false information on social media platforms, specifically on Twitter,” Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said.
“We wish to state it clearly that the said accounts are not the City’s official account.”
He said the metro disassociated itself from all messages and other content posted on these accounts.
“We have also put a message on our official timeline that all followers of our official account must be aware of these fake accounts,” he said.
Mashigo said their official account would not disseminate information that perpetuated any form of discrimination or disregarded Twitter’s policy against spreading fake news.
“We have already asked Twitter to investigate the person or persons behind these tweets that are sowing disharmony in society pretending to be the admin of the City’s Twitter account and take appropriate action,” he said.
He further said they were currently awaiting feedback from Twitter about the verification of their account to make it clearly and visibly distinguishable from the other accounts that were using their logo.
“It must be emphasised that we will not hesitate to name and shame the person(s) behind the impersonation of the city’s Twitter admin and report them to law-enforcement,” Mashigo said.
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Fake accounts were identifiable by the following:
– Usage of stock images, shared by other users.
– Duplicate tweets.
– No interaction with other users and has no followers.
– If the profile does not relate to the URL and does not direct you to the official website, which is a requirement from Twitter to define or describe your account and include a URL address.
“We also want to remind members of the public that it is a criminal offence to impersonate a person or entity. We urge law-abiding citizens to expose any form or narrative that seeks to mislead or spread false information,” Mashigo said.
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