While we’re sure this has been happening across the board, the BBC reports that Habitat (the European furnishings franchise founded by Terence Conran in the ’60s, now part of the IKANO Group) added fake hashtags to tweets — like “Iran” and “Tehran” — so that more people would see information about their spring collection sales.
An example tweet: “HabitatUK: #MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1,000 gift card.”
The retailer is playing dumb; per their official statement: “This was absolutely not authorised by Habitat – we were shocked when we discovered what happened.”
PS: If you haven’t yet, show your support for the people who fight for democracy in Iran via a greened Twitter icon.