What Middle Eastern country bought its Twitter name from a porn site?

@Israel hasn't been used much since being registered on Twitter in 2007. Back then, well before the company crossed the 100 million-user mark, you could get just about any Twitter name you wanted, and Israel Melendez decided he wanted to use his first name. Think of the glory! If this Twitter thing ever hit it big (which, obviously, it did), he'd have the equivalent of a first name Gmail addressor AIM handle. This can be a real badge of honor in some circles.

Well, right away, Melendez thought better of tweeting under @Israel. It turns out that some people thought he was tweeting on behalf of the country, and the Miami resident – and porn site owner – found himself on the receiving end of hefty amounts of political anger and anti-Semitism ... 140 tiny characters at a time.

The NY Times reports:

"My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel," Mr. Meléndez said.

The country bearing the same name as Melendez was more than happy to take it over, but it didn't get to do so as a favor to the original owner. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the country did have to pay, and it refused to disclose the terms.

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[Via Gawker]

Filed under: North America, Israel, United States, Internet Tools, Middle East