| SDNY Sentencing of 6ix9ine
Tweeted By Inner City Press Then Imposter
Screen Shot Now Down
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 21 – When Daniel Hernandez
a/k/a Tekashi 6ix9ine was
sentenced to 24 months of
total imprisonment on December
18 before U.S. District
Court Judge Paul A.
Engelmayer, Inner City Press
live-tweeted the sentence, here.
Inner City
Press' live
tweeted thread
of the entire
proceeding is
here.
Post-sentencing
Periscope
video here.
The
tweets got thousands of
re-tweets, each. They were
quoted and quotes in
publications ranging from BuzzFeed
to Gothamist
to Vanity
Fair to
Vibe
and many publications in
languages that are not readily
translateable. Here
is a sample profile.
Just after
the sentencing ended, and
Inner City Press tweeted that
the U.S. Marshals had taken
Hernandez away from the
courtroom to prison
undislosed, an imposter
Twitter account using
InnerCity Press' name with one
letter missing sprung up, and
"reported" that while being
escorted by the Marshals,
Hernandez had been shot.
At first
Inner City Press assumed that
this impersonation would be
taken down, or descend into
oblivion. But throughout the
afternoon and evening of
December 18, it got more
retweets. Notably, many were
from accounts with Russian
names, perhaps an amorphous
zombie army.
On the
night of December 18 Inner
City Press notified Twitter
about the impersonation. It
was asked to submit identity
document and did.
Then,
nothing. By December 20
the Hernandez-was-shot tweet
had hundreds of re-tweets. An
account named Alejandro asked,
Is this really happening??? An
account labeled Turkin Sergej
gave four thumbs-up emoji.
More on Patreon
here.
Inner City
Press wrote to Twitter and,
having no response, took a
photo of the imposted tweeted,
labeled it such with a
watermark, and put that online:
"Just after reporting on
#6ix9ine's sentencing, Twitter
was alerted to this imposter
account ("innr," not "inner"
city press). Two days and 166
re-tweets later, for all the
hoopla about fake news &
2020, @Twitter has
done nothing. Live-tweeting of
#SDNY to continue."
Tellingly, the imposter false
report of a shooting that did
not happen as of this writing
has more than ten times as
many re-tweets and Likes as
Inner City Press' tweet
disavowing and seeking to
debunk it.
Now on
December 21, three days after
the introduction of and formal
complaint to Twitter about the
false report, Twitter has
responded - and said it is
unconvinced it is an imposted
account. "Hello, Thanks
for bringing this to our
attention. We have been unable
to determine that the account
you reported is in violation
of our Impersonation Policy."
Was this
an acceptable response? After
three days? What does it say
about preparations for the
elections in 2020? At the SDNY
courthouse from which Inner
City Press is, for example,
live tweeting the T-Mobile
/ Sprint merger antitrust
trial, what if an imposter
account false reports that
Judge Victor Marrero as
approved, or disapproved, the
merger?
Now after 8 pm on
December 21, after three days
and hundreds of retweets,
thankfully this:
"Hello,
Thanks for sending us your
report. We reviewed the
account, and removed it for
violating our rules."
Great. But
why 3+ days, and three
separately requests from Inner
City Press? And what's to stop
it or things like it from
happening again? Inner
City Press will continue to
pursue this. More
on Patreon
here.
***
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Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
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