Free Salondotcom! Twitter Shuts Down Hilarious Salon Parody Account
It's not clear exactly why Twitter shut down @Salondotcom, although the social media service has been known to suspend parody accounts.
At approximately 5:50 P.M. EST, it became known that Twitter had shut down @Salondotcom, a hilarious parody of Salon run by The Daily Caller's opinion editor, Jordan Bloom, and his roommate, Rob Mariani. @Salondotcom constantly tweeted fake headlines that perfectly aped Salon's everyone-is-racist-and-Republicans-are-worse-than-Hitler shtick. Here were a few of the best, courtesy of Mediaite:
Nanoaggressions: Science reveals structural oppression too small for human eyes
— Salon.com (@Salondotcom) June 24, 2014
Should GMOs come with trigger warnings?
— Salon.com (@Salondotcom) June 25, 2014
Ten signs your cat might be racist
— Salon.com (@Salondotcom) June 25, 2014
Contrast with some actual Salon stories currently inhabiting the news website's "Most Read" headlines section:
How Melissa McCarthy sold out overweight women
From wet T-shirts to oral sex contests: A brief history of sexploitative party games
The account routinely fooled Twitter users on both the right and left who would click the headlines hoping to be delivered to Salon articles that confirmed their own biases.
It's not clear exactly why Twitter shut down @Salondotcom, although the social media service has been known to suspend parody accounts. Still, it's a shame.
The Twitterverse is currently standing in solidarity with @Salondotcom by using #FreeSalondotcom instead. Supporters are even generating some relevant parody headlines of their own:
Zach Hanover @zhanover: Why the death penalty should be reserved for cultural appropriators and twitter parody accounts #FreeSalondotcom
