What Did Twitter Do to Piss off William Shatner This Bad?
William Shatner noticed a suspicious account in his “following” list late Monday night: Mastercard, an account he doesn’t follow on Twitter:
.@jack @safety Why am I following MasterCard when I didn't add them? I do not appreciate this. pic.twitter.com/k91D6vTaXZ
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
Soon Shatner began noticing Mastercard in the follower lists of other major accounts, including Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, The Rock (who followed only one person yet somehow also had Mastercard listed), and, most awkwardly, Visa:
Best one yet it's on @Visa's list of followers!!! pic.twitter.com/riPqgEMv6l
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
The promoted account appears to be an evolution of the promoted tweet; whereas before a company could buy an individual promoted tweet, which appeared in your timeline even if you didn’t follow the account, now the account itself goes straight into your follower list.
This isn’t to say you follow Mastercard. Note in Shatner’s screenshot the difference between the blue and white boxes. Blue means you follow the account; white gives you the option.
But it was the appearance that Shatner followed Mastercard that bothered him. He tweeted at the company heads:
.@jack @safety Do you understand that by implying that I follow these companies that it appears to be an endorsement?
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
.@spnevans @TheRock Why? What if it's a competitor and we have an endorsement deal? There's a potential to hurt the deal.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
Those explaining the white vs blue box: If you look at @TheRock's followers – there are 2 if you don't understand promoted it's endorsement
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
Blocking Mastercard did no good, as another promoted account would just take its place:
If you block @MasterCard it will be removed from your followers list. It's really bad netiquette for @Twitter to have done that.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
.@jack @safety Now it's @IFC that's in my followers list. pic.twitter.com/WFvGOfrRdP
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
The whole thing was enough to send Shatner, with his 2.03 presumably legitimate million followers, off the social media platform (we’ll believe it when we see it):
I'm out but I am going to reevaluate the time I spend on Twitter going forward.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 30, 2014
[Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]
