How to find out who owns a twitter account.

puzzled999
puzzled999 Posts: 16 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Loads of tutorials on the net, however it is going to take a lot of investigative work and a lot of time if I followed those articles.

Which has lead me to this forum, and the clever people who live here, have you guys got any tips on how to uncover who owns a twitter account.

The twitter account I want uncovered is being used to impersonate a famous politician, however twitter don't seem to be interested in suspending the account.

So any ideas?

Comments

  • k3lvc
    k3lvc Posts: 4,174 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    puzzled999 wrote: »
    So any ideas?



    Depends how much you're paying to avoid all the investigative work/time ?
  • puzzled999
    puzzled999 Posts: 16 Forumite
    k3lvc wrote: »
    Depends how much you're paying to avoid all the investigative work/time ?

    hah like it!

    To be fair not asking people to do the investigative work for me, more to see if anyone has got any hints or tips on how to achieve my aim of unmasking the impersonator.
  • S0litaire
    S0litaire Posts: 3,535 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    edited 3 May 2016 at 1:39PM
    Without a court order (or a very craftily worded legal letter from a lawyer) being presented to Twitter, you're not going to get far.

    Then another court order / legal letter to the VPN/ISP that owns the IP address, Twitter gives you, to match it to a account holder (or another VPN account if they are not stupid). then rinse and repeat for every VPN, ISP, IP address till you reach the person. Or till you hit a VPN company which does not keep logs then you're stuck.

    You *might* get some headway if the owner is stupid enough to follow himself from his "parody" / "fake" account (or the other way around).

    So start checking out every "Following" and "Follower" listed on the account.

    *edit*

    Since Twitter Inc. is a US based company they tend only to take down accounts which include threatening/ behaviour and physical harm.
    All other types of accounts are at the discretion off the staff. (freedom of speech and all that jazz!)
    Laters

    Sol

    "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
  • RumRat
    RumRat Posts: 4,781 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post Photogenic
    Why bother? They've probably got more interesting and meaningful things to say than the original...
    Drinking Rum before 10am makes you
    A PIRATE
    Not an Alcoholic...!
  • puzzled999
    puzzled999 Posts: 16 Forumite
    S0litaire wrote: »
    Without a court order (or a very craftily worded legal letter from a lawyer) being presented to Twitter, you're not going to get far.

    Then another court order / legal letter to the VPN/ISP that owns the IP address, Twitter gives you, to match it to a account holder (or another VPN account if they are not stupid). then rinse and repeat for every VPN, ISP, IP address till you reach the person. Or till you hit a VPN company which does not keep logs then you're stuck.

    You *might* get some headway if the owner is stupid enough to follow himself from his "parody" / "fake" account (or the other way around).

    So start checking out every "Following" and "Follower" listed on the account.

    *edit*

    Since Twitter Inc. is a US based company they tend only to take down accounts which include threatening/ behaviour and physical harm.
    All other types of accounts are at the discretion off the staff. (freedom of speech and all that jazz!)

    Thanks useful info, the thing is Twitters own rules say;
    Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules. Twitter accounts portraying another person in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under the Twitter impersonation policy.

    Yet this particular account is allowed to stay even though it does the above!
  • S0litaire
    S0litaire Posts: 3,535 Forumite
    First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    puzzled999 wrote: »
    Thanks useful info, the thing is Twitters own rules say;



    Yet this particular account is allowed to stay even though it does the above!

    Parody exception applies!
    If it's not you bring impersonated then twitter will probably ignore your request.
    Laters

    Sol

    "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
  • puzzled999
    puzzled999 Posts: 16 Forumite
    Interestingly after 2 years of this impersonator slandering this public figure on twitter, his account today has been suspended! Thanks twitter, but they do sure as hell take ages to suspend accounts!
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