Wherever you are, a McDonald's is likely somewhere near. But even massive franchises worth billions can be duped by trolls on Twitter.
It began with a simple misleading username. Someone using the @Mc_donaldsHK started tweeting out promotions and advertisements for McDonald's Hong Kong. Tweets like "Have a happy McHoliday" that would lull people into absentmindedly following them, as Gizmodo pointed out. Even the real Twitter handle of McDonald's (@McDonaldsCorp) were duped into tagging the impostor in some posts made on Twitter.
The game probably would have continued if the user didn't start tweeting some pretty dark sh*t on July 24, alarming users and McDonald's that the handle was in fact an impostor.
The tweets were disturbing. One read "where is my son they took my son," while another said "please kill me i wish to die." We're not sure which one alarmed them, but McDonald's immediately denounced any affiliation with the account, a rep told Washington Post.
After receiving some media attention, the unknown user quickly changed their handle to @notMcDonaldsHK, but the damage was done. Twitter still suspended the account. Other accounts popped up to carry the torch, however none of them made the fatal mistake of posing as a real account.
Long story short, it's all fun and games until it's not.
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