Twitter Reportedly Shutters GOP Account That Pretended To Represent Democratic Candidate [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

01/31/2020 09:14 pm ET

The fake Twitter account began to turn on New Hampshire hopeful Dan Feltes just weeks before the primary, The Wall Street Journal reported.

By Mary Papenfuss

Twitter has shut down an account run by New Hampshire’s Republican Party that purported to represent a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The fake account demonstrates the kind of challenges social media companies will increasingly be confronted with this election season as they’re faced with deception — and cracking down on it.

The deceptive account in this case purported to represent candidate Dan Feltes and featured a photo similar to the one used on his campaign website, according to the Journal. On Wednesday, just two weeks before the gubernatorial primary, the account started to turn on the candidate.

The state’s Democratic Party reported the fake account to Twitter, and the account was permanently suspended Thursday for violating the company’s policy against impersonation.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrat-dan-feltes-fake-twitter-account-new-hampshire_n_5e34c67cc5b6f26233295f16