Twitter Temporarily Bans Great Press Secretary Parody Account
What happens when you create a poignant, popular Twitter parody account? It's a crapshoot, but sometimes this happens:
Twitter has some rules about parody accounts. One is that the account name should make clear that it's not the real deal. The fact that this one is "@WeKnowWhatsBest" seems obvious enough. Another rule is that "the avatar should not be the exact trademark or logo of the account subject," but that wouldn't seem to include faces, as the fake press secretary account was forced to change. And, plenty of parodies have real faces, like this raunchy Bill Clinton account.
The press secretary account has over 41,000 followers and, thankfully, it's back online jabbing the commander-in-chief and his staff. Today it took a jab at President Barack Obama's vacation habits, and presumably, the new revelation that he isn't going to many of his intelligence briefings: "The White House intruder made it all the way to the East Room, which technically means he spent more time in the WH in Sept than Obama."
There are countless satirical accounts across the political and and ideological spectrum, like this spot on "hip" parody of Vice and the flawlessly bumbling @GOPTeens. Reason's Robby Soave recently highlighted @SalonDotCom, which got temporarily blocked, presumably for being so convincing.
Twitter doesn't seem to have a consistent policy, or likely the manpower, to give a fair check to every parody. As such, it comes off as just nitpicky and leaves itself open to accusations of being biased.
More disturbing is this recent case highlighted by Reason's Scott Shackford: A judge was OK with an egotistical mayor sending a SWAT team to catch a guy who parodied him.