City of Tshwane warns Twitterati of fake accounts

23 February 2022

Tshwane warns Twitterati of fake accounts masquerading as the City’s official account

The City of Tshwane would like to caution the followers of its official Twitter account about fake accounts that are misleading members of the public by spreading false information on social media platforms, specifically on Twitter.

We wish to state it clearly that the said accounts are not the City’s official account. The City disassociates itself from all messages and other imagery that have been posted on the fake Twitter accounts that are currently disseminating false information. We have also put a message on our official timeline that all followers of the official City of Tshwane Twitter account must be aware of these fake or fitter accounts.

The City’s official Twitter account will not disseminate information that perpetuates any form of discrimination and also disregards the Twitter policy not to spread fake news.

We have already asked Twitter to investigate the person(s) behind these tweets that are sowing disharmony in society pretending to be the admin of the City’s Twitter account and take appropriate action.

We are currently awaiting feedback from Twitter on the verification of our account to make it clearly and visibly distinguishable from the fake ones that are using our logo. It must be emphasized that we will not hesitate to name and shame the person(s) behind the impersonation of the city’s Twitter admin and also report them to law enforcement

Most of the fake accounts are identifiable by the following:

• If an account uses stock images shared by other users, that should be spotted as a fake account
• If there are duplicate tweets, chances are you are looking at a fake account
• If the profile does not relate to the URL and does not direct you to the official website, which is a requirement from Twitter to define or describe your account and include a URL address, then that should be another giveaway
• If the account has no interaction with other users and has no followers, that is another indication that the account is fake.
We also want to remind members of the public that it is a criminal offense to impersonate a person or entity.

We urge law-abiding citizens to expose any form of narrative that seeks to mislead or spread false information.

Issued by the Communication, Marketing, and Events Department.