It’s been a few days since seven-year-old Bana al-Abed became the world’s unlikeliest social media star. With the help of her mother Fatemah, Bana has been tweeting messages from Aleppo, documenting her life in the besieged city. On 24 September, Bana had 4,000 Twitter followers. Since her story was covered in a handful of Britain’s national newspapers this week, she now has nearly 60,000.
Through her tweets, Bana has described a world where children go to bed praying they will wake up the next morning, where you lose friends not because of a playground fight, but because they have been crushed to death in a barrel bomb attack, and where a perfect day would just be going to school.
Morning, we are still alive but are you waiting us be dead as all our next houses are bombed now?. -Fatemah #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/Y3xzITYUdz
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) October 6, 2016
But just because Bana isn’t your usual liquid-lipstick-haul brand of internet famous doesn’t mean she isn’t subjected to the same treatment as more traditional social media stars. Like many prominent people who use the site, Bana has been targeted by fake, mock profiles imitating her account. Because she doesn’t have a blue tick – Twitter’s badge of verification that proves someone is who they say they are – there is potential that these fake accounts will be mistaken for her.
Two of these accounts seem to have that aim in mind. One – that Bana herself has tweeted about – has a single tweet, “Dear world help us”, that has been shared 60 times. Others, however, are far more malicious, and seem to be acting on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s belief – that he voiced to Danish TV2 correspondent Rasmus Tantholdt – that Bana is a “terrorist”.
Hello @verified can you please help distinguish us from @alabed_bana @Banaalabed1 who are causing serious problems for us? Thanks. – Fatemah
Give a gift subscription to the New Statesman this Christmas from just £49— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) October 6, 2016
@alabed_banana has just 26 followers but has tweeted 493 times since the beginning of October. The account’s creator doesn’t seem to want to pass as Bana (the pig and poo emojis in the account name do a good job of ruling out its authenticity) but is instead targeting Bana’s supporters by claiming that her account is fake.
I live East #Aleppo, and I’d like to give credit to Syrian government for providing 24/7 Internet to a war zone! #SaveAleppo #BanaAlabed
— ☝BananaAlabed (@alabed_banana) October 5, 2016
“Anne Frank wrote her diary with a ballpoint pen, yrs b4 its invention. I tweet from Aleppo, in perfect English, with electric power being down all day,” reads the bio of the account.
The user has also taken umbrage with one of Bana’s tweets that reads: “Dear world, it’s better to start 3rd world war instead of letting Russia & assad commit #HolocaustAleppo”. The fake account has repeatedly criticised the tweet, asking: “Which ‘girl’” wants WW3 upon mankind? this is a troll, a disgusting neocon troll.” The account, in essence, is a troll calling out a real account for being a troll.
#SaveAleppo #AlabedBana what is wrong with wishing death to millions so that my Al Qaeda pimps can survive and continue killing? #hoax pic.twitter.com/WZhAVfL4Wm
— ☝BananaAlabed (@alabed_banana) October 5, 2016
The real Bana has contacted Twitter asking to be verified, and if this happens it is unlikely these fake accounts will gain any traction. Users can also report them as spam by clicking the cog symbol on the top right hand corner of their timelines.
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