A couple of days ago, there was a Twitter message under the name of NOS Radio 1 Journal spreading the rumor that Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen is pregnant from Real Madrid football player Wesley Sneijder.
And why is this big news? For the past two years Yolanthe, Dutch soap star and media figure, has been the girlfriend of Jantje Smit, the famous singer from Volendam. Their break-up was already big news but now a Twitter message under the name of NOS Radio 1 communicated she’s pregnant of another famous football player.
A lot of Twitter users retweeted this ‘news’, believing that the message came from a trusted source, the NOS Radio 1 news. However NOS declared they do not own this Twitter account. It’s clear that NOS should have subscribed a Twitter account under that name already in order to avoid situations like this.
A while ago, our agency investigated the ownership of twitter accounts. When someone makes an account under a company’s name, can we be certain that it’s the company sending a message to the world? Following the example above, the answer is no. The survey showed that only a small percentage of the 45 companies from the Bel 20 and AEX Index are owner of twitter accounts referring to their company’s name.
In times that the Twitter community gets bigger and bigger this is a risk that shouldn’t be underestimated anymore. Every company, including media, should take the responsibility to check their Twitter presence even though companies don’t have the intention to use Twitter in the near future.
Conclusion: hijacking Twitter accounts is easy, what’s next?
