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17/05/2013

The Austrian Mafia 5: Twitter is no longer safe either




The popular Twitter account '@LyonessVictims' seems to have been suspended. Although no hard evidence is available, there seem to be few other explanations than that Lyoness has pulled an 'Andy' on this account.

The Lyoness Complaint Centre finds it incomprehensible and offensive at the same time that major corporations as Youtube and Twitter offer Lyoness the opportunity to free the Internet from anything that isn't lyrical about their pyramid scheme, by simply (and falsely) claiming that Lyoness' copyrights were violated.

In fact, just like on Youtube, Lyoness is the one that should have its accounts suspended and its tweets removed for violating the terms and conditions.

As many users of Twitter may know, the use of Twitter is subject to a set of 'Twitter' rules.

Indeed, one of those rules is:

"Trademark: We reserve the right to reclaim user names on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those user names. Accounts using business names and/or logos to mislead others may be permanently suspended."

Unlike in the case of the contested (Youtube) videos, Lyoness is not fighting this battle about copyrights it doesn't own. However, it is highly doubtful that owning a trademark is enough to prevent people from using a name for a non-commercial, purely informative cause. The account did not impersonate anyone, did not use company logos and did not use the name 'to mislead others'. In fact, from the name 'LyonessVictims', it is quite clear what the point of view expressed by this account is.

Also, there are numerous of unaffiliated Twitter accounts baring the name 'Lyoness' in their screen name. However, since those are positive (i.e. irrationally lyrical) about Lyoness, their persistence will never be contested. The Lyoness Complaint Centre cannot believe that it is the purpose of the Twitter rules that companies get to decide which information is available about them online, and especially not to censor this information by spamming the positive information and deleting the negative information. In fact, this violates nearly every country's freedom of speech legislation.

As mentioned, if anyone here is violating the Twitter rules, it is Lyoness.

"Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. [...]. [e.g.] If you repeatedly create false or misleading content in an attempt to bring in an attempt to bring attention to an account, service or link."

Well, it is obvious that the various existing Lyoness accounts do this, as they keep pretending that they are marketing an 'innocent shopping community'. In fact, they try to lure unwitting Twitter members to their website and meetings to persuade them into buying their actual services: the pyramid and Ponzi scams!

Also written in the Twitter rules is:

"Unlawful Use: You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities."

That pretty much speaks for itself. Nearly nothing about the Lyoness 'business model' is in fact lawful and therefore all tweets uttered by the Lyoness accounts, or promoting the Lyoness services, are in violation of the Twitter rules and should be immediately and permanently removed - along with the accounts that have produced them.

We urge Twitter, just like we are urging Youtube, to take down the Lyoness propaganda (which violates their terms and conditions) and to stop allowing these fraudsters to remove the truth about their illegal activities from the Internet. At the same time, we really hope that the person behind @LyonessVictims will not stop fighting against Lyoness, but will make a fresh start and will continue fighting for the good cause.

The Lyoness Complaint Centre has updated its Twitter avatar. We just hope we're not illegally using the Lyoness company logo:








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