Texas Tech Monitors Players’ Social Media with Fake Girl Accounts
The accounts allow team officials to see what they’re players are posting.
Texas Tech's Kliff Kingsbury says he thinks players know the team tracks them on social media, but players don't care.
A coach at Texas Tech University admitted to monitoring his players’ social media activity by creating fake accounts of girls.
Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech’s head football coach, said on a podcast recently that the unconventional monitoring method helps team officials keep track of the information players are broadcasting to the public.
“We have fake accounts with cute girls that they add right now, so we can see what’s going on and who’s tweeting what,” Kingsbury said on free-agent linebacker A.J. Hawk’s podcast. “Those are heavily monitored, for sure.”
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Kingsbury also said he thinks most players are aware that their accounts are being watched at some capacity by team officials, according to msn.com.
Most sites allow users to implement privacy settings to block strangers from seeing your activity. By making fake accounts with girls, Kingsbury reasons, team officials can get around that barrier.
“A friend request from a cute girl is an automatic follow,” Kingsbury joked.
There have been several scandals recently involving college football players posting controversial statements or images on social media, and Texas Tech is certainly not the only program watching its players online. But it may be the first to admit to the unusual strategy of creating fake accounts.
Read Next: Report: 2 in 3 Adults’ Social Media Accounts Hacked
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