Unsuck DC Metro undertook a yeoman’s task this week uncovering the news that, just like many celebrities, WMATA has its share of imposters on Twitter. The blog reported on Wednesday that they were contacted by WMATA spokesman Ronald A. Holzer Jr. after publishing a post which questioned a cryptic tweet about an escalator disruption at the Ballston station. The post’s writer was unaware that the cut-off message was coming from an unauthorized twitter account — WMATA’s official presence on Twitter is located at the username “metroopensdoors“; the blog had been pulling news from the username “wmata“.
They aren’t alone: “wmata” has a nearly two-to-one advantage in followers over the official WMATA account.
“It struck us as cavalier [that Metro] wouldn’t care that someone is using their brand,” said the blog’s owner, who asked to be referred to as Unsuckdcmetro. “We can’t imagine Coke allowing someone to use its brand so freely. I bet [Coke have] snatched up every possible Twitter account that could possibly be associated with Coke.”
Attempts to contact the proprietor of “wmata” went unreturned.
The transit agency said that since “wmata” is simply rebroadcasting the twitter feed of “metroopensdoors,” they are content to let it be. But for those of us who are active in the twitterscape, it’s obvious how such a laissez-faire philosophy could cause problems — especially for an organization who depends on the format to relay potentially vital service information (unlike some of us, who use Twitter to disseminate important watering hole location information). What would happen if the the person or persons behind the popular alternate feeds began interjecting personal tweets alongside the official Metro dispatches? What about the risks when something unexpected happens and “wmata” suggests something that conflicts with what WMATA actually wants?
Or as Unsuckdcmetro puts it, “a simple ‘bomb on Orange Line’ from @wmata could really cause massive problems.”
It’s a pertinent reminder that even though its popularity is growing exponentially, Twitter is still a wild west of sorts — one must vet their sources of information just as they would with any other sort of social networking service.
