@BPGlobalPR: Please verify that you’re an (un)official account.
That was BP’s Tuesday message to its satirical Twitter nemesis, @BPGlobalPR. The New York Times details how the oil company appealed to the Twitter powers-that-be to ensure that the fake feed cleared up the fact that its words are not tied to the actual company.
“BP requested that the account holder be asked to comply with Twitter’s guidelines regarding parody,” said Twitter in a statement on Wednesday. “Twitter subsequently provided suggestions of best practices that are found on our parody policy page.”
@BPGlobalPR was among the best of Newsfeed’s satirical twitter feeds and has gained 150,000 followers over the course of the oil spill. But up until this week, it could have been confused as an actual company voice. The previous bio touted the account as a source for getting “BP’s message and mission statement out into the twitterverse.”
Twitter complied with BP’s complaint, and was able to get the fake feed to change its tune. But it couldn’t stop the quips from flowing into the account. The new bio states: “We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 51 days.”
