“Will Smith’s” Trayvon Martin tweet goes viral, causes confusion

Making sense of the many parody and fake celebrity accounts on Twitter can be a daunting task at times, even with the benefit of Twitter's 'verified' blue checkmark. Throw in a sans-serif font, and you've got a real mystery on your hands.

Fans of actor Will Smith got thoroughly confused last Friday when a tweet from @RealWiIISmith went viral:

As Buzzfeed reports, that Twitter account isn't run by Will-Smith-the-actor, or anyone affiliated with him. It even states in the account bio that it's meant as a parody. And yet, in just a short time, that tweet was re-tweeted by many who agreed with the sentiment, especially coming from a big name like Smith. Even big name celebrities like Spike Lee and Rosie O'Donnell started spreading it around.

Things got especially problematic when this picture was shared online:

Two things really complicated the matter:

1. The account the tweet was being shared from only has one 'L' in the name, despite what it looks like. Written out all in lower-case, the account is @realwiiismith.

2. When people saw the screenshot, many didn't share the image or retweet the initial tweet, opting instead to type out the tweet and share it the old-fashioned way, with an 'RT' at the beginning. This meant many people were typing out the account name as @realwillsmith.

Enter the third Will Smith in this tangled tale. Meet Will Smith, resident of Nashville:

That Will Smith, who had no idea what was going on, was being credited for a now-viral tweet, and getting lots of new followers for it, too. According to Buzzfeed, some people realized the error and sought to correct others, while some people decided they just didn't care and thought the message was the important part to get out, no matter who it came from.

So, what's the moral of this story? For font nerds like myself out there, this means we should all be checking out tweets in Times New Roman before sending them out into the world. And for everyone else, just consider carefully if the source of a message matters before you share. And if you still agree, retweet away!