
My @JFK Twitter account “has been suspended and will not be restored” - weisser
https://medium.com/@john_43250/death-of-jfk-or-why-twitter-permanently-suspended-the-only-thing-that-made-me-cool-2a4bb9420d82#.x6muu4kyy
======
jrockway
I don't think you can impersonate an airport. They should revise the message
to say that they're taking his username for "imairportation".

Kind of reminds me of:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft)

Except in the real world, if you buy the domain name it's yours, while being
an early adopter of Twitter just gets your account shut down if Twitter thinks
they can make more money by giving it to someone else.

Finally, it's not like he told people to message John Fitzgerald Kelley with
complaints about KJFK airport. They did that on their own, and he just took it
in stride. That's what passes for a terms of service violation these days.

~~~
atdt
One of the senses of "impersonate" is "to manifest or embody in one's own
person". Thus the _person_ in impersonate is the person assuming the identity,
not the person or thing whose identity is being assumed.

~~~
jrockway
Overall unconvincing. People also messaged "him" to bemoan his assassination.
Did they actually think they were talking to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, even
though they obviously knew he was dead?

------
cyberferret
While I sympathise with the author, the end result was pretty inevitable.
Getting a popular handle like that is both a blessing and a curse.

My experience from the other side: There is a well know budget airline here in
Australia which (like all budget airlines) is renowned for it's poor service.
After one particular bad flight experience a couple of years ago, I hastily
sent off an annoyed tweet @airlinename.

A few minutes later, I received a barrage of insults and self righteous tweets
from that account. Checking the account history, I see that is is some guy in
the UK with the same handle as the airline, and looking at his historical
timeline, it seems to be his routine day job to hurl insults at anyone who
mistakenly tweets him thinking that is the airline's twitter handle.

Fair enough, I should have checked first. But he never pretended to be a rep
from the airline - just a rude, bad tempered git with poor spelling and
grammar skills, so I was never mislead, and I just forgot about the incident.
Until a few months later when I checked on that account again and discovered
that it was now a private account.

------
atdt
He may have not created the account with the intension of misleading anyone,
but he lost moral authority when he started replying to tweets in a manner
designed to reinforce confusion (for example, by using the pronoun 'we').

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Plus his profile picture is JFK airport's signage.

That's clearly designed to mislead. Just go look at his own screenshots of his
tweets in the article. It is pretty damning.

~~~
atdt
It is not. It was derived from the banner image on this page:

[http://airportparkingguides.com/jfk-airport-parking-
guide/](http://airportparkingguides.com/jfk-airport-parking-guide/)

I found it via a Google image search for "JFK airport"; it was the fifth
result.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
You say "it is not" then link to something tying his profile image to the
airport? All you've done is reinforce what I said, that it is clearly designed
to mislead and impersonate the airport.

People in this thread act like this is "David and Goliath" when in reality the
owner of the JFK Twitter handle intentionally changed his profile picture to
one associated with the international airport then acted as a representative
in order to generate complaints/bad sentiment.

It is pretty indefensible. It wasn't an accident or a mistake. He did it over
days, not hours, and further compounded the deceit by changing the account's
profile picture to misleading people into believing he was the facility.

Sorry, but I would have killed that account too. I would not be able to trust
him not to do it again in the future, and frankly he might be better off
losing it than getting sued by the airport (even if he doesn't appreciate that
at the moment).

~~~
jack9
They meant "it is not [JFK signage]" which is a pedantic attempt to deflect
because they either have nothing to add or think it's fine and rather not
defend it directly. The profile image is specifically related to JFK by image
(which he sought and chose)...making it intentionally confusing or casually
confusing because he rather use a clip of an image from a site dedicated to
JFK airport, rather than make up his own MSpaint image. Indefensible is the
correct term, if-and-only-if Twitter has decided that monikers don't mean
anything unless they do. There have been similar fights in naming Guilds in
WoW, AOL usernames, etc. It's to be expected and acting surprised is just
noise.

~~~
atdt
I completely agree. I did not mean that it is not official JFK signage, and
therefore OK. The fact that the picture was very likely found via an image
search for "jfk airport" is just further evidence of deliberate impersonation.
It is not exculpatory in any way.

------
cooper12
Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen all too often. Corporations don't
have souls. Someone likely reported the guy and some worker making pennies in
the Philippines spent a few seconds on his case and moved on to the next
hundred. The only way to get them to care is if you're someone important, or
if you kick up a big enough storm. The way companies like Google are moving
towards automating human decisions (as evident in Youtube and the Play Store)
will only exacerbate the alienation users will face. This is the future we
choose with these megacorporations. One user is a not even a raindrop in their
ocean and is not worth the monetary expense to them to provide reasonable
support for. Of course you're a guest on their platform, but that doesn't mean
you shouldn't have expectations for how you are treated. The only solution is
to move towards platforms where you are in control (like Diaspora) or ones
that are small enough to respect you personally. The internet was supposed to
bring us closer together, but with things like anonymity and scale, sometimes
the worst parts just overwhelm the rest.

------
danirod
The author got me until he showed the screenshots where he impersonated the
airport.

I mean, you could complain if you got your Twitter account suspended for no
clear reason. Maybe the airport or some other big party attempting to unfairly
get your handle. But this does't seem to be the case here.

------
sintaxi
What a strange blog post. It goes from being a strong argument why he should
have the @JFK account to a strong argument why he shouldn't.

------
xeniak
> I can’t help feeling like I’m getting the death penalty for a parking
> violation

I think our obsession with short/cool handles is strange, and even stranger is
people building their "empire" on something that can be taken from you so
arbitrarily.

It's the same as people expecting to get free-speech on Twitter/FB/Tumblr.

Even domains, which can't be taken from you on a whim, can be made far less
"valuable" with the introduction on new TLDs.

------
rando444
TL;DR - Guy with JFK twitter handle decides to impersonate airport. Outcome is
predictable.

~~~
cooper12
Your tldr is missing the point though. They know how they messed up, the point
of their post is to show the disproportionate and impersonal response they
received to something that was just supposed to be some fun.

~~~
geofft
"Fun" is in the eye of the beholder. The people tweeting at him may have
_never_ realized that this wasn't the airport.

If you want some fun, go play a video game or something. I have no sympathy
for someone who gets their fun at other people's expense.

~~~
RubyPinch
How was it at someone else's expense?

~~~
geofft
From the images in the article, @DapperDapo tweeted out loud, tagging @JFK,
asking what the right handle was to file a complaint. @JFK responded. They
then proceeded to state their complaint, and @JFK mocked them.

> What's @jfk Twitter page. I have complaints.

< @DapperDapo we don't take complaints, only compliments. #WhyPeopleSoAngry?

> Why are there 2 people working the customs line when two international
> flights just landed? @JFK

< @DapperDapo Duh. One per flight. Next question?

It's very likely (keep in mind they were probably on mobile if they were
tweeting from a customs line, and @JFK has display name "JFK" and a photo of
the airport as its profile picture) that they believed that they successfully
reached someone at JFK, and the airport hires grumpy people. In fact, the joke
is only funny if that's the case, if they were tricked into believing they
talked to the airport.

A very good contrast is @slack, a human named Matt Slack. His profile picture
shows his face, and his display name is "Matt Slack", not "Slack". If you tag
him by mistake (which happens very often!) he'll reply with some sort of joke
about how he's a person and not a messaging system. Funny, classy, and not
attempting to mislead. The humor is always about him very clearly _not_ being
@SlackHQ, as opposed to him being a rude version of @SlackHQ.
[https://twitter.com/slack/with_replies](https://twitter.com/slack/with_replies)

~~~
RubyPinch
But where is the notable negative impact to those two people's lives?

I ain't denying that he was being a goober to them, but "at their expense"
implies its at their expense

I don't see how it goes further than, them getting to the next worker at the
airport, saying "UGH, your PR on twitter sucks!", and then being told
"maam/sir, that is not our twitter account"

------
losvedir
Ha, I know the early adopter pride. I have a cool phone number from Google
Voice and occasionally drop "in my day" from my 10 year old reddit account. I
know it's silly, but there's a little bit of pride there.

Must be sad to lose @jfk. I know technically he did have it coming, but it
seems like the kind of thing where maybe you could get a warning first or
something.

~~~
ramparrt
Pride comes with embarrassment. I have an almost 12 year old steam account and
am regularly ridiculed for playing CSGO poorly with a 10 years+ veteran's
badge.

------
riffic
Twitter's namespace belongs to Twitter alone. Anyone who thinks otherwise is
fooling themselves.

------
geofft
> _I tweeted 9 times in response to people who tweeted at me, who were
> directing their ire at the wrong place, and who really should just lighten
> up a bit._

"You should just lighten up" is a good sign that you have no argument and
you're being a jerk. It is the catchphrase of a schoolyard bully who never
grew out of that phase.

And the best part is it can apply either way. Twitter took your account that
you had for 9 years! That's pretty funny! You're not on Twitter any more! Just
lighten up, go outside, and stop using Twitter. Get a sense of humor, okay?
What, you don't like me turning your argument around on you? Lighten up a bit!

------
ssimpson
While my account hasn't been suspended I get similar mis-tweeted traffic.
Probably because most of the people using Twitter don't know how to use it
correctly.

------
0xmohit
This leaves you with something to think about: Can one assume that one can
continue to avail such services forever? Maybe it is only a matter of time
when (1) the provider stops offering services (selectively), (2) it becomes
paid, (3) it ceases to exist.

Maybe it's good to be prepared that it might happen.

------
hornbaker
In a perfect world, Twitter would restore your account, and JFK airport would
hire you as SVP Customer Service.

