Chiyangwa Asked Twitter To Shut Down An Account Impersonating Him: Can Twitter Really Do That?

On Monday Dr. Philip Chiyangwa reportedly asked Twitter to remove a certain Twitter Account/handle that was impersonating him. After being alerted by his relatives, Chiyangwa claims that he asked Twitter to shut down the fake Twitter account. Speaking to The Herald about the issue, Dr. Chiyangwa said;

There have been posts for a while now under my name on Twitter and some relatives alerted me…… So I applied to shut down the Twitter account and cheers to the pretender

Is it possible to ask Twitter to shut down Accounts impersonating you?…. Did Twitter shut down the Account?

Now some people were wondering if it’s even possible for one to asks Twitter to take down a twitter account that’s impersonating you. The answer is, Yes you can and I can confirm that the Twitter account with the name Philip Chiyangwa is currently suspended. The ‘impersonating account’ was taken down because it violated Twitter rules. Twitter calls this violation or impersonating and misusing a username as ‘Username Squatting’. And Here is what Twitter say about ‘Username Squatting’;

Username Squatting: You may not engage in ‘Username Squatting’. Some of the factors we take into consideration when determining whether conduct is username squatting include:

• the number of accounts created;

• the creation of accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account names;

• the creation of accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts; and

• the use of third-party content feeds to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties.

I hope that with this knowledge those public figures who have fallen victim to ‘Username Squatting’ will engage with Twitter to shut down Twitter accounts that are impersonating them. It’s a way better alternative than to try to do damage control by denying they don’t have twitter accounts after controversial ‘Tweets’ are posted from impersonating accounts.

How to contact Twitter telling them about Username Squatting

If you have a Twitter account you simply need to send Direct Message to Twitter. But if you don’t have a Twitter account it’s a bit tricky to let Twitter know because Twitter doesn’t have a dedicated support platform (such as an email address). Therefore you have to first join Twitter and report your ‘Username Squatting’ issue.