After Trump's comments, the wrong John Lewis is getting buried in tweets

It's been a rough weekend for John Lewis.
 By 
Sam Haysom
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

LONDON -- Cases of mistaken identity aren't exactly uncommon on Twitter -- it's why we have those little blue ticks.

But little blue ticks only go so far.

John Lewis, a computer science educator from Blacksburg, Virginia, may be the best example of this.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Basically, if you search for "John Lewis" on Twitter, you'll get something like this:

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The man at the top is the Congressman and civil rights hero who has been in the news recently after a Donald Trump Twitter storm. The handle in the middle is that of a large department store in the UK (you know, the one that makes those viral Christmas adverts every year).

The man at the bottom, meanwhile, is our hapless hero.

Because he joined Twitter way back in November 2007, John Lewis bagged himself the most straightforward Twitter handle of the three: @johnlewis.

The problem? It means he constantly has to field requests like this:

John Lewis is pretty much famous in Britain for the way he handles the annual surge of tweets mis-directed at the UK department store whenever they release their Christmas ad.

And since Congressman John Lewis made headlines last Wednesday when he spoke out about Trump's nominee for attorney general, the other John Lewis has been fielding even more misplaced tweets.

People were quick to pick up on the added confusion.

Following Trump's Twitter rant about Congressman Lewis, though, John Lewis' Twitter feed took a depressing turn.

Luckily, despite the many unpleasant voices on the internet, there were just as many people who made their support for both John Lewis' clear.

Mashable has reached out to John Lewis.

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Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.

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