July 2, 2009

The Instapundit on Twitter is not Instapundit.

Instapundit asks the faux-Instapundit to contact him.

Non-parody impersonation is a violation of Twitter's terms of service. Let Twitter squelch that account for you.

ADDED: Glenn says:
JUST TO BE CLEAR, I don’t think the Instapundit feed on Twitter is any sort of a scam. I think it was just set up by someone trying to help. I just want to upgrade it and need the keys. I figured it would be easier to ask the person who set it up for me first, rather than going through Twitter.
I can see why he'd want to take over the existing feed rather than eliminate it and start over, and while the person who started it may have meant well, I do think Glenn needs to control his brand. I assumed this Twitter feed was his and formed the opinion that it was awfully unimaginative. And as Jason (the commenter) notes, the fake Instapundit was following various Twitterers: "It's like Mr. Reynolds is endorsing them and I wonder if payments are being made for the follows." Well, that would be a scam.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

I followed the faux Instapundit for a while. He/She basically just tweets all of Glenn's posts. I don't think it's okay to do that without Glenn's consent, but I don't think there's any malice behind it. Some people might find it useful, so I hope Glenn can work out some sort of arrangement with this person, rather than just killing the feed.

Jason (the commenter) said...

...but I don't think there's any malice behind it.

I have a problem with a fake Instaundit following a select group of people. It's like Mr. Reynolds is endorsing them and I wonder if payments are being made for the follows.

tim maguire said...

It seems like a useful service. It should have been done with the knowledge and blessings of Glenn; hopefully it still can be.

traditionalguy said...

She is using his material that he uses without paying for it, without paying for it. Hmmm.

Randy said...

Twitter has what are called "verified" accounts for well-known people in order to prevent impersonations. I imagine Reynolds would qualify.

EnigmatiCore said...

I'll wager whoever is doing this is a fan and not looking to exploit.

And hasn't thought that Glenn wants the traffic to his site, not just to be heard, for revenue purposes.

Ann Althouse said...

It hurts the Instapundit brand because it looks like Glenn is doing a really lame Twitter feed. I assumed it was him.

Glenn Reynolds said...

I think it was just someone trying to help, and I was okay with it. I just want to upgrade it and need the keys. I figured it would be easier -- and nicer -- to ask first, rather than just going through the Twitter impersonation route.

EnigmatiCore said...

Easier? Nicer? No lawsuit?

What kind of lawyer's teacher are you?

Anonymous said...

c'mon

this has to be that psychic ability permutated with the smart phone and the bing?

that or allah just improved his odds by 100%

Chris Wysocki said...

I agree with Jason - the list of people faux-Instapundit is following lends the imprimatur of the Instapundit brand to those select few.

Having the cachet of "followed by Instapundit" to hang on your blog or profile is (a) really cool and (b) probably valuable. It immediately grants a lot of credibility to the followees.

Face it? Wouldn't you like to be on that list? I sure would!

Glenn Reynolds said...

"Followed by Instapundit." Funny, to me that doesn't seem like a lot of cachet . . . .

Glenn Reynolds said...

Funny thing is, with just a couple of exceptions the folks I'm allegedly "following" are people I don't know.

Chris Wysocki said...

@Glenn said "Followed by Instapundit." Funny, to me that doesn't seem like a lot of cachet . . . .

Heh. Perhaps because you don't remember what it's like to be a blogospheric mushroom. Or maybe because I've had one Instalanche I'm now craving more and more and more...

Kylos said...

Glenn, that twitter account is being automatically generated from your rss feed. You may have to contact the owner of the account manually if you want to get in touch with them, since they may not actually read you consistently.

Unknown said...

If you're being followed by a public figure who you don't personally know, it's almost certainly either: 1)because you're a public figure yourself; or (more commonly) because you're following him/her. I'm followed by Fred Thompson, but I'm not laboring under the delusion that Fred hangs on my every word, or that he even personally reads my tweets.

Freder Frederson said...

It hurts the Instapundit brand because it looks like Glenn is doing a really lame Twitter feed.

And here I was thinking that all Glenn is doing on Instapundit really is just a lame Twitter feed.

Ann Althouse said...

@Freder I love Glenn, but that was hilarious.