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.
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."
Is 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? Maybe then Twitter would act, because money and not truth is on the line. Inner City Press will continue to pursue this.
