Some malicious drongo with too much time on their hands is pretending to be NZ Herald reporter David Fisher on Twitter, closely mimicking his real Twitter account @Fish_NZH, which is one I follow. (UPDATE: As you’ll observe in the comments below, David Fisher renamed his Twitter account to @DFisherJourno … And the deceitful impostor renamed his/her/its to @FisherJourno. Spot the pattern.)
Someone deceitful has gone to a little effort to impersonate David Fisher on Twitter.
Now, this is No Big Deal. I’m all for parody and satire. Laugh it up. Nobody thinks Steve Braunias’ ‘Secret Diary of …’ columns are real. But impersonation crosses the line, as I have said before (Anonymous comment vs IMPERSONATION). It is a step too far, in my view, and is an indicator of a level of personal dishonesty which disqualifies the user from being taken seriously in a debate, or it should.
I’ve had my own run-ins with legends in their own lunchbox who imagine they’re internet ninjas. See Internet ninja cowboys … spoofing revisited.
Dishonesty is never a winning strategy, culture war or not.
– P
The malicious drongo has reached out, asking me why I say he’s impersonating David Fisher as opposed to parodying him. Here’s his fake tweet:
I almost can’t be bothered, but, hey …
Look how closely his fake tweet resembles a genuine tweet from David Fisher.
A number of things make this spoofing false pretences rather than satire:
Using David Fisher’s name, the close mimicking of Fisher’s twitter name (@Fish_NZH vs @Fish_NZ) and his actual Twitter bio (even matching changes Fisher made yesterday to his Twitter avatar after the bogus account was set up) … with no declaration of parody.
So, malicious drongo, no, your parody is not ‘clear enough’.
Here’s how a couple of genuine parody accounts I’m aware of do it.
One uses ‘Fake‘ as part of their Twitter name, the other (@DrBrash) spells it out in the bio … real parody accounts declare themselves one way or another.
David Fisher’s parasite is being dishonest and misleading in my opinion. The malicious drongo is being deceitful, not funny.
Combined with the foul abuse that’s been thrown at Fisher by Cameron Slater and his gang of anonymous bullies and cowards this resembles harassment. But David Fisher, I’m guessing, has thick enough skin to cope.
– P
Oh, look. The fraud pretending to be David Fisher on Twitter continues to ape/mimic/copy the real David Fisher’s changes to his twitter account (user name and avatar picture).
That fits my ‘harassment’ description.
Malicious drongo indeed.
– P
Far, far, FAR too much time on impersonating drongo’s hands.
If i remember correctly there was something in the news regarding a new malicious impersonation law mid last year – when i was going through all my drama.
I wonder what happened with that?
Dunno about that proposed legislation … I think the Law Commission recommendations and reactions thereto are working their way through slowly.
As for time on their hands, well, um, gee-whizz J., remember this?:
http://www.thepaepae.com/an-utterly-useless-waste-of-a-persons-time/11112/
I have to agree with Cactus on that one Peter.
Nothing wrong with wasting a bit of extra time though i guess – and there are worse things one could be doing.
Just don’t ask me what. 😉
Yeah, people have the choice what they invest their life force in.
Malicious drongo is playing a pretty small game, it seems to me, but as I said in my original post: No Big Deal.
– P
Mat Honan put it nicely today:
I agree this impersonation tactic is rather disloyal and disingenuous
However Peter’s blow torch on this person seems odd, there are thousands of these Fake people on Social Media/ Register Sites. From Warren Buffet Obama and other fluff piece celebrity’s they are far more important and influential than this person. I would put 10 bucks and say Peter has a god in this fight. I see he has opposing views to Mr Whaleoil. so my money is safe. Another Labour shill.
Sure this a step further but we have all used email addresses we don’t use/need to register multiple times on sites which have one person per site policy. But that’s still some level of impersonation.
I think you are overstating the issue here particularly for who this is. Simply Ignore the person its not difficult.
Moral of story if you go to Social Media for Facts your going to get BS.
Media organisations even create Fake accounts pushing their own agendas.
Hi Craig (or Chad, or whatever your real name is), I really can’t state it any better than Mike Monteiro did today:
https://twitter.com/Mike_FTW/status/293077846899961856
– P
True, If your conversing with someone and you believe it to be someone else its frustrating.
But this is nature of the internet. Its one of the reasons its so compelling even if both party’s are being honest its basically no holds barred the non personalization of it makes people ‘feel’ anonymous.
And will goto levels they would not normally do.
“we have all used email addresses we don’t use/need to register multiple times on sites which have one person per site policy.”
Ummm. No we haven’t all done that actually.
Sorry your right generalization.
But if you think your in the minority you sadly mistaken.
The parasite impersonating David Fisher is still dishonestly mimicking the real David Fisher’s twitter account.
It seems to me David Fisher’s impostor is ducking and diving, still trying to mislead people, NOT parodying a public figure (which Fisher isn’t anyway).
That FAKE David Fisher twitter account — which appears more focussed on deceit than entertainment — should be clearly labelled as such, in my view.
—
Here’s how a couple of new, genuine, parody accounts are doing the business, and being funny — by being very clear:
– P
[…] talked about sock puppets before, most recently in the context of someone maliciously impersonating journalist David Fisher on Twitter. In my limited experience, often such bogus people have commercial reasons for not […]
[…] talked about sock puppets before, most recently in the context of someone maliciously impersonating journalist David Fisher on Twitter. In my limited experience, often such bogus people have commercial reasons for not […]
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