Whether you call it “Twittergate” or “Twitterjacking” the outrage over the pirating and misuse of the Tanner Friedman Twitter page by an outside entity has resonated through the halls of business, media and fellow social media users alike over the past week.
Top tech and media reporters Bill Shea (Crain’s), Matt Roush (WWJ/GLITR) and Mike Wendland all covered the incident; some even speculating on who is responsible. Detroit News writer Susan Whitall called us on Wednesday and weighs in in today’s edition of the paper.
Why all the interest? While a number of celebrity Twitter pages manned by imposters have recently been exposed, the degree to which our imposter worked to impugn our reputation (including re-writing and then tweeting actual Tanner Friedman tweets to further perpetuate the misrepresentation) has rarely, if ever, been seen in this emerging medium.
Why would someone put forth this pathetic, unethical act? Right now, as legal and law enforcement look into the matter further, we can only speculate. It would appear, however, that someone had both an ax to grind and, evidently, a lot of time on their hands.