Fake Twitter Campaign Warns of Fake Tweets

Don’t Believe Every Tweet, appeared to be a Twitter drive encouraging social media scepticism, when in fact it was the calling card of a struggling TV writer.

So this is all a bit meta – Sunday morning saw the release of a polished campaign that duped seasoned reporters and web wizards alike into believing that Twitter had launched a marketing effort to warn its users not to be duped by fake or misleading info on its platform. Ha!

The company has now confirmed it was not behind the campaign, which was instead created by struggling writer Nathan Gotsch, 35, who wanted to attract the attention of the entertainment industry having, as yet, failed to break into Hollywood.  

The project includes a Twitter account, @DontBelieveEv, three YouTube videos featuring comedian Greg Barris (above) giving fake life-coach masterclasses and a website that seamlessly links to Twitter’s official site and includes a bogus statement from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that says in part, “...we’re very excited to announce the launch of our new #dontbelieveeverytweet campaign. It’s a simple reminder to be skeptical of everything you see on Twitter because our users can put literally anything in a tweet."

The spots featuring Barris were all written and directed by Gotsch with help from acclaimed cinematographer Jennifer Gittings and seemed to have been effective; the writer reports he has already had producers contacting him to discuss working on ideas around Barris' character.