"“Twitter name squatters are a problem for companies because they represent unknown individuals and entities that suddenly have the ability to harm or destroy your reputation or brand identity among a massive consumer base,” said Tyson Snow, an attorney who specializes in social media with Mumford West & Snow LLC in Salt Lake City.
“The goodwill a company spent years or decades to develop may quickly be lost if name squatters are not shut down,” he added.
So what’s a name-squatting victim to do?
Snow, who blogs at Social Media, Esq.,was kind enough to walk MedCity News through the process. And he brings good news.
“It’s quite simple, and there are only a few steps involved,”he said. “To their credit, Twitter has done an excellent job of automating and simplifying the process.”
First, visit Twitter’s name-squatting policy page, which sends aggrieved parties in one of two directions — impersonation (a user account that’s pretending to be someone else with the intent to deceive) or trademark infringement (an account that uses a business’ name, logo or other trademark-protected materials.) Trademark infringement is the more serious offense so Twitter responds more quickly to those requests, Snow said."
What does this have to do with political law? Well, just like website name cybersquatters, Twitter name squatters can target political candidates and campaigns. See this blog post and article by Matt Sanderson in the March 2009 Election Law Journal. I'd be interested to find out how Twitter would deal with a campaign name squatter. It seems like there might be some gray area if a squatter used the name, say MittRomney2012 and the actual campaign account was Romney2012. What would qualify it as an impersonation? Perhaps Twitter expert Tyson Snow will weigh in.
