Why Was the Dalai Lama’s Twitter Account Suspended?

Update: It’s confirmed. The Dalai Lama Twitter account was a fake and imposter. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone reveals this in an email to the Associated Press.

Just a little more than a day after getting on Twitter, the Dalai Lama’s profile has been suspended for ‘due to strange activity’. This could mean several things:

1. It was a fake account, set up by an imposter with no ties to His Holiness’s office.
2. Twitter’s automated spam algorithm kicked in and automatically suspended it due to massive follow activity.
3. A random glitch in the Twitter system.

More importantly, it tells us a few things:

1. We need a verification system to determine who is legitimate or not. This is especially important if its a celebrity or notable personality.




2. Journalists and web publishers need to fact-check before publishing. A check with the official webpage for the Dalai Lama reveals no mention of a Twitter account. So how should we as bloggers determine how a Twitter account is real or not? I suppose one of the best ways is to directly contact the official source in order to determine validity (I probably should have done this), something that’s often overlooked in the fast paced web environment.




3. Twitter users love the Dalai Lama! Close to 20K followers in such a short span of time. Clearly, His Holiness is more than welcome in this community. If this was a fake account, it revealed at least the advantage of embracing new media.

PS: A look at the OHHDL account now shows that ‘That page doesn’t exist!’ instead of the previous suspension notice.

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Filed under: Twitter Culture