Viral: Teen Claims She Used Smart Fridge To Tweet – But Did She Really?

A resourceful teenager claims she used her family's smart fridge to tweet after her mother confiscated her phone. The Twitter user, named Dorothy, tweeted last week to say that her mother had barred her from using her phone, but that she found a number of creative ways to skirt the ban - first by tweeting from a handheld Nintendo device, then a Wii U gaming console, and finally her family's LG Smart Refrigerator.

Her story went viral on the microblogging website, even sparking a #FreeDorothy movement that Twitter and LG joined, reports the Guardian. However, not all of it may be true.

It all began when Dorothy tweeted on August 4 that her phone had been taken away.

im leaving forever. my mom took my phone. ill miss u all sm. im crying. goodbye. #ACNL pic.twitter.com/yqDNQylGIR

— dorothy 🏹 (@thankunext327) August 5, 2019

Another tweet followed. Apparently sent by her mother, it stated: "I see that Dorothy has been using Twitter on her Nintendo. This account will be shut down now."

I seen that Dorothy has been using twitter on her Nintendo. This account will be shut down now. pic.twitter.com/L4JqNYhUHe

— dorothy 🏹 (@thankunext327) August 5, 2019

Two days later, Dorothy posted from a Wii U console

#WiiU pic.twitter.com/9q09xxW2QR

— dorothy 🏹 (@thankunext327) August 5, 2019

And finally, on Monday, she said she was tweeting from her family's smart fridge

I do not know if this is going to tweet I am talking to my fridge what the heck my Mom confiscated all of my electronics again.

— dorothy 🏹 (@thankunext327) August 8, 2019

Soon, however, reports began to emerge that cast doubts on her story. According to the Guardian, Igor Brigadir, a computer researcher at University College Dublin, reviewed the tweet and said it probably did not come from a refrigerator. The tweets sent from Wii U and Nintendo seemed genuine, he added.

"The LG fridge [tweet] was definitely manually created," he said. He reached this conclusion when he examined the metadata of the tweets and found that Dorothy had tweeted from a custom Twitter app. If Dorothy had actually tweeted from a fridge, he said, the metadata would probably have said the tweet was sent through a browser, not from a fridge.