In a first of its kind action in India, Twitter has removed a fake ID of movie star Shahid Kapoor, on grounds of
impersonation. This came about after Shahid's publicist registered a complaint with Twitter for impersonation.
Since the last few months a fan had created a fake account where he would connect with his fans and pretend to be the
real Shahid.
A lot of people believed that this was the actual actor. Shahid has a strong presence online, having
been the most searched Bollywood star, winning the sexiest vegetarian poll on PETA's Asia pacific site and many more.
His fake profile grew from strength to strength, with followers adding him to get his status updates.
The
impersonator, on his part, would discuss his upcoming film and his poll wins etc, whatever was in the news about Shahid
on any particular day.
The complaint to Twitter was made when the fan refused to part with the ID and continued to pretend to be the actor.
Twitter responded within a week and disabled the fake account, taking a strong stand against impersonation.
"We hope that this puts to end all the unverified reports that claimed that the real Shahid Kapoor was on Twitter, which
he never was, " said a friend of the actor.
Monday, July 13, 2009 13:39 IST