How to Delete Fake X and Twitter Profiles and Posts Mitch Warren March 18, 2024

How to Delete Fake X and Twitter Profiles and Posts

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Distinguishing brand impersonations in the world of X/Twitter can sometimes be perplexing. Unlike LinkedIn, which enforces more stringent measures against misrepresentation, X tends to take a more flexible stance. This has made it harder to know what’s authentic or not on X. This makes things complicated when brands want to identify, report, and delete fake X and Twitter profiles/posts.

Leading financial institutions and retailers trust our best-in-class takedown team to efficiently and efficiently stamp out X impersonations. We are excited to bring their expertise on the subtleties of X rules regarding brand, executive, and employee impersonations. Additionally, we share our tips for reporting violations and managing takedowns.

DEFINING X AND TWITTER IMPERSONATIONS

Misleading and Deceptive Identities

The first part of battling impersonations of your brand or employees on X is understanding X’s definitions of what does and does not constitute impersonation.

X defines impersonation and deceptive identities in its current misleading and deceptive identities policy:

  • Impersonation – You may not pose as an existing person, group, or organization to mislead others about who you are or who you represent. Accounts that violate this policy will misrepresent their identity by using at least two elements of another identity, such as the name, image, or false claims of affiliation with another individual or organization in their profile or posts.
  • Deceptive Identities – You may not pose as someone who doesn’t exist to mislead others about who you are or who you represent. This includes using at least one element of someone else’s identity on your profile or posts in a misleading way, such as using another individual’s image or making a false statement of affiliation with an existing individual or entity. We also consider accounts deceptive if they use a computer-generated image of a person to pose as someone who doesn’t exist.

You’ll notice X’s emphasis on “at least two elements” in the definition of impersonation. The same policy states, “Accounts that share your name but have no other commonalities are not violating this policy.”

X considers parodies, social commentary, and fan accounts to be an acceptable part of its ecosystem. Granted, X also requires that such accounts “clearly indicate that the account is not affiliated with the subject portrayed in the profile” in their account name and bio.

This differs from other social media platforms like LinkedIn, which strictly prohibits fake profiles. On X, impersonation is defined as having “at least two elements” of another account’s identity, but accounts without a profile picture or with a mismatched image aren’t usually prioritized for takedown. Deleting fake X profiles is a deceptively involved process.

X and Twitter Takedown Guidance

DEFINING X AND TWITTER IMPERSONATIONS

Trademark Infringement & Copyright Violations

Sometimes, a post may infringe on your brand’s intellectual property rights without requiring X’s “rule of two” impersonating elements to justify removal.
 

X has different reporting requirements for trademark infringements vs. copyright violations.

It’s essential to understand the difference to avoid any delay when moving to delete fake X impersonations.

Trademark infringement typically relates to the unauthorized use of a brand’s identifiers, such as logos, brand names, or product names.

Copyright violation typically relates to the unauthorized use of original creative works such as text, images, music, videos, software code, and more.

Reporting Trademark Infringement

According to X’s trademark policy, “Using another’s trademark in a way that may mislead or confuse people about your affiliation may be a violation of our trademark policy.”

Considering fair use of trademarks and referencing another’s trademark is not always a violation. For example, if someone uses the reference outside the trademark’s registration scope or if they could consider its use “fair use”.

If you decide your brand’s trademark is indeed being infringed upon, you can report it using X’s trademark infringement form. You will need to prove that you are the trademark owner or an authorized representative of the trademark owner and provide:

  • Your contact information
  • Information about the account you’re reporting
  • Evidence that you’re an authorized representative of the trademark holder
  • The trademark holder’s contact information
  • Information about the trademark itself

Reporting Copyright Violations

X’s fair use policy states “Certain uses of copyrighted material may not require the copyright owner’s permission.” Fair use is not an X policy but rather a matter of formal copyright law. Whether or not an instance is “fair use” depends on four factors:

What is the reason that the copyrighted material is being used? Uses considered commercial are more likely to be flagged as being in violation of free use. Uses that add something to the original work (commentary, criticism, etc.) will likely be considered fair use.

Is the copied work factual (the record of a historical event) or fictional (a popular movie, book, etc.)? The use of factual works weighs in favor of fair use, whereas the use of fictional works weighs in favor of violating fair use. 

How much of the protected work was used? The more that a work is copied, the less likely it is to be considered fair use. Shorter excerpts are more likely to be regarded as fair use. 

Could the use in question have a negative effect on the work’s value? If the copying might bring harm to the work’s market (i.e., creating a substitute or replacement for the work) then it is likely not fair use. 

Requesting Impersonation Takedown on X/Twitter

You may find impersonations of your brand on X profiles, posts, lists, moments, products, ads, and direct messages.

Submitting reports for each type of impersonation follows a standard format. We’ve highlighted some of the nuances of the different reporting types.

As a result, reporting or requesting a takedown directly from a profile, post, list, or Moment all follow similar actions as illustrated in the diagram.

To report a brand impersonation will prompt you to fill out this form.

You will need to confirm your identity. Afterward, they will ask you to provide company information, personal information (name, relation to the company), and details about the account being reported.

  • Open the profile you’d like to report.
  • Select the More icon.
  • Select Report and then select the type of issue you’d like to report.
  • X will include the text of the posts you reported in follow-up emails and notifications. To opt out of receiving this information, uncheck the box next to “Updates about this report can show these posts”.
  • Once you’ve submitted your report, X will provide recommendations for additional actions you can take to improve
 
  • Navigate to the post you’d like to report.
  • Click or tap the More icon located at the top of the post.
  • Select Report post and follow the steps pictured above to provide the required information.
  • Lists can be reported from the detail page of a List, or from the Notifications tab.
  • Navigate to the List you’d like to report.
  • Click or tap the More icon at the top of the List.
  • Select Report List and follow through the steps pictured above to provide the required information.
  • Navigate to the post within the Moment that you’d like to report.
  • Click or tap the More icon.
  • Click or tap Report post.
  • Choose the type of issue you’d like to report.
  • Once you’ve submitted your report, X will provide recommendations for actions you can take to improve your experience.

Reporting Products in Shop Spotlight

It is important to note that reporting products on a profile’s Shop Spotlight can only be done via the mobile app (iOS/Android)

  1. While on a merchant’s profile, find the Shop Spotlight.
  2. Select the More icon  on the product you wish to report.
  3. Select Report product.
  4. Select Intellectual property violation (1 & 1A on the diagram) if you report a product for intellectual property rights issues. You’ll need to include the product ID. You can also submit an intellectual property violation directly here.
  5. Select Other violation (2 & 2A on the diagram) if you report a product for a different reason. 

How To Report Ads

  1. Click the More  icon near the offending advertisement.
  2. Select Report ad.
    1. Select the offense from this list.
    2. Choose “illegal products and services” if applicable for brand impersonations.
    3. If not, select “something else.”
  3. Selecting any offense will submit your report.

Reporting Direct Messages

    1. In a conversation:
      On a desktop, click on the Direct Message conversation you’d like to report.
        1. For IOS, swipe left on the message conversation you’d like to flag.
        2. For Android, tap and long-press the message conversation you’d like to flag.
    2. On desktop, click the More icon
        1. For IOS, Tap the report icon
        2. For Android, Tap Report conversation.
    3. Select Report @username.
      1. You will be prompted to report the message for being spam or abusive or harmful.
      2. Reporting as spam will automatically submit a report to X, and remove the message from your inbox.

    Reporting as spam will automatically submit a report to X, and remove the message from your inbox.

    If you select “It’s abusive or harmful”, X will ask you to provide additional information about the issue you’re reporting. They may also ask you to select additional messages from the account you’re reporting so they have better context to evaluate your report. 
    The reporting process will look like this image.

Once you’ve submitted your report, X will provide recommendations for additional actions you can take to improve your experience. You also have the option of reporting an entire conversation from a group message.

After you submit a report to delete fake X impersonations, you can also mute or block the offending profile directly from a direct message report.

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