It appeared for sometime that the Tibetian spiritual leader Dalai Lama followed the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI to use the latest technology to attract the tech-savy youths and joined twitter.
The twitter account was created on Saturday and attracted nearly 20,000 followers in just 2 days and was suspended on Monday by Twitter because it violated twitter"s Terms of Use regarding impersonation.
The background for the twitter page included a picture of Dalai Lama and one of his quotes. The first tweet was - "Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness the Dalai Lama - administered by The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama". However, after the account owner acknowledged Twitter that it"s not an official Dalai Lama"s twitter account, the account appeared again. The account"s profile was updated immediately to hold that its not affiliated with the real Dalai Lama.
The micro-blogging service has been taken over by a number of celebrities recently. As Twitter continues to take off and people catch on to its potential, we see more and more fake twitter accounts impersonating well known personalities. Fake accounts that spoof celebrities have always gained notable followers until their true identity was revealed. Also, twitter accounts of famous people have been hacked to send fake messages in their names.
There"s no means of verification of a person"s details when signing up for a twitter account. To be on the safer side if you are suspicious of a profile, always have a check on what other users say about that account.