How To Liberate A Squatter Twitter Account (Really!)
Is someone sitting on the Twitter handle you want? Is it someone with 0 followers who registered in 2008 and never tweeted once? Yeah, that was me, too. At least, it was yesterday. This morning, Twitter Trust & Safety turned over to me the account I've been after for years.
The trick is to file an impersonation claim. That's the only one Twitter responds to in a timely fashion. This means you have to make a credible case that you or your brand is being impersonated, and the account has to have violated Twitter's inactive account policy. But if you have your ducks in a row, you can have that account in your hands in under a week. Here's how.
Step 1: Own An Email Address That Matches The Twitter Account You Want
Yes, in some cases, that's a big caveat. But it's much easier to get a domain name than a trademark, and you need to establish that the name or brand you're after is indeed yours. You're going to need an email address giving you a credible claim. Having a website, even if the domain is just forwarding somewhere, won't hurt.
For example, the Twitter handle I wanted was @emotikon, which is the name of my musical projects. I own emotikon.co, so I used an email address from that domain throughout this process.
Step 1.5: If you already have a Twitter account with an alternative name, and you just want to change its name to the one you want, skip step 2.
Step 2: Register A Dummy Twitter Account With That Address
Sign up for a new Twitter account using the email address from step 1. The handle can be anything you want. When Twitter liberates your account, they're going to merge it over to the dummy account, so you're saving a step by giving them an existing account to use. I called mine @emotikonTEMP.
Step 3: Report The Account for Impersonation
The form you need is at support.twitter.com/forms/impersonation. Choose the bottom option, "I am being impersonated." When you click that button, more options will appear. Choose the one that applies.
Once you've chosen the right option, a contact form will appear. Fill that out with all the relevant information and be sure to use the email address that clearly establishes your claim to the name. The optional Twitter username is the one from step 1.5 or 2. It says it's optional, but it will save you a step.
Step 4: Wait A Little While
After you submit, you'll get an auto-reply right away. Before too long, a human on the Twitter Trust and Safety team will follow up with you if there are any problems with your submission. If everything is in order, after a perfectly reasonable amount of time, you'll get the glorious email.
After that, the account is yours! When you log in to the account you listed in step 3, it will have the name you've been waiting for.
Victory is mine.
— emotikon (@emotikon) December 13, 2011
Thanks to J.B. at Fusible for showing me how this works. I can't believe it, but it really does!
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