Is Buying a Twitter Account Unethical? An Ethics & Value Analysis

Whenever there's a boom of interest in one web property or service, everyone wants to get on the bandwagon, whether or not it is appropriate for their business, or whether or not they understand how to use the tool.

 

That's probably why the business of buying and selling Twitter accounts has been growing in popularity lately. Pre-built accounts with hundreds or thousands of followers are being bought and sold online through various services that are springing up publicly with increasing frequency lately.

 

Some people say that there are clear ethical issues around this activity, and that no-one should transfer their account ever. Others are saying that it's just another channel and of course it can be bought and sold.

 

When you boil down the debate on both sides, you end up at two main questions:

 

1. Are there any Actual Ethical Issues involved in a Twitter account purchase?

 

2. What is the Actual Value of a purchased Twitter Account?

 

Twitter's Terms of Service and CNN

As of this writing, Twitter doesn't make it clear that buying or selling accounts is against the TOS. In the Twitter Rules, there is a limitation on "Selling user names", and one of the factors used to determine if a user is Name Squatting , is "creating accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts".

 

However, the current CNN Twitter account was acquired recently with almost 950,000 followers. Well, CNN claims it wasn't an acquisition, but a consulting agreement with the owner of the account which included the transfer of the account.

 

Whatever... the CNN "consulting agreement" certainly isn't doing much to stem the future exchange of Twitter accounts.

 

Ethical Issues

While in some cases there are some obvious ethical problems with buying or selling an account, I'm not sure that there is always an ethical issue. Before we move forward, however, I'm going to give you the necessary caveat of "I am not a lawyer", so get legal advice before you decide to buy or sell an account.

 

Also from this point forward, we'll assume that each account will be transfered with some kind of "consulting agreement" in order to not officially be "selling an account", since that seemed to be OK for CNN.

 

 

Consider the following scenarios:

 

A person builds their Twitter account over time, then quietly sells it to the highest bidder

 

Ethical Issue: Subscribers are no longer hearing from the person they thought they were. Could this be viewed as misrepresentation?

 

 

A company builds their Twitter account, goes out of business, and the new owners take over the account

 

Ethical Issue: This is less clear... the new owners purchased the company assets, are they entitled to use the assets they purchased?

 

 

A person builds an account around an idea, such as "business tips", and sells it to a company that offers services in this area

 

Ethical Issue: Again... less clear. If the account never claimed to "be someone", how could the owner be misrepresented? If the new owners continue to provide content of similar value as the previous owner, how are subscribers losing out?

 

 

Remember, all subscribers are free to click the "unsubscribe" button at any time. When you add this to the fact that Twitter account owners don't actually have direct contact or personal information about their subscribers, then what is the ethical risk to the subscribers?

 

Finally, think about other publishing channels... if a person creates a magazine, builds a subscriber base, and then sells the business which continues to operate, is that unethical? How about when businesses sell access to their subscriber lists? Is that unethical? The second scenerio isn't even the case in Twitter, where probably no personal information is disclosed during an account sale or transfer.

 

Actual Value of a Purchased Twitter Account

Putting everything else aside, can a purchased Twitter account actually be a useful marketing tool? How valuable are the followers of the account, and how can they help the business who has access to them?

 

Let's pretend we're blackhats out to make some money with no thought to the ethical issues. Our imaginary blackhat would create 1,501 accounts, link them all together, and would then have 1,501 accounts each with 1,500 followers, all for sale to the highest bidder.

 

So you have to ask yourself... WHAT are you buying when you're buying an existing Twitter account?

 

Ethics & Value Analysis

In the case of a personal Twitter account, where people believe they are reading the actual tweets of an actual human being with whom they feel they are building an actual relationship, it's almost certainly unethical to sell the account and for the new owners to continue pretending they are that person.

 

In other cases, where ownership of the account is less clear, and people do not believe they are building a relationship with a person or group, there are less arguments to be made for a sale of the account being unethical. If the audience believes they are simply interacting with the creators of content they are interested in, then selling the account is unlikely to be unethical if the intent is to continue providing similar content of a similar quality.

 

As for the effectiveness of buying a Twitter account for marketing use, you probably get what you pay for. If you are buying an account because you want to take a shortcut to having a broader audience, it's important to recognize that this is, in every sense, a shortcut, and not necessarily the creation of actual value.

 

Final Analysis: Caveat Emptor: let the buyer beware