Authorities
in Brazil have got hold of a valuable Twitter account to publicise next
year’s Rio Olympics, after a humble Spanish shoeshine man surrendered
the rights to it for free.
Javier
Castano, 50, handed over the password for the Twitter name
@riodejaneiro to Rio de Janeiro city hall — and said Monday he now wants
to do the same with the handle @japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Castano registered several key Twitter account names in 2007, when the online social network was in its early days.
He
said he spent years sending messages to Rio city hall offering them the
account. It said it has now finally replied to him and formally
accepted.
“We
are very happy to at last be able to use the name of our city on the
social network,” said Rio’s tourism secretary Antonio Pedro Figueira
Mello in a statement.
“This will be of great value now that we are getting closer to the Olympics.”
Castano
was formerly a graphic designer but saw work dry up in Spain’s recent
economic crisis. He now earns about 30 euros ($34) a day shining shoes
in the street in Malaga, southern Spain.
He insisted on giving the Twitter accounts only to the legitimate representatives of the Olympic host cities, for free.
“I
am a shoeshine man with not much money, but I have the privilege of
being able to give a gift to 130 million Japanese people or eight
million people in Rio,” he told AFP. “Could you do that?”
Castano
has already handed over @canada and @madrid to authorities in those
places, by sending them the passwords to the accounts once they formally
accepted and confirmed their identity.
“I am very happy now. My only remaining task is to hand over @japan,” he said.
Japanese
government officials however said they had never heard of Castano and
voiced reservations about accepting Twitter accounts from private
individuals.
“There
is no discussion, as far as I know, about setting up new accounts,”
said an official who helps publish tweets for the Japanese prime
minister’s office.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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