PARODY ACCOUNTS
Sometimes ago, I remember a social media feud that
ensued between one of our quick-to-reply artiste and another and it continued
for days until it was uncovered that the artiste this quick-to-reply artiste
was quarrelling with wasn’t even him. It was a parody account and the guy
wasn’t even a regular twitter user.
Imagine the embarrassment it must’ve caused for the
quick-to-reply artiste and not even the innocent guy who didn’t know what was
going on but my sincere question is why do people run parody accounts?... is
there a kind of thrill it gives or something cos me, I don’t understand oh!.
For instance, just try following someone like
Cristiano Ronaldo or M.I or… don’t even let me keep mentioning before I use my
small ink to mention names of celebs. You can’t successfully follow celebs on
twitter without being a keen observer to know if it’s their real account or not
and that was when social media owners like Facebook, Twitter and so on came up
with the verification idea to help intended followers to the real account and
stop the confusion parody account owners cause on the social media platform.
The issue got out of hand sometimes back when a popular figure tweeted some
racist tweet and it sparked total twitter uproar, only for it to be discovered
he didn’t even have a tweeter account… although he had to open one after and
twitter immediately verified it just to clear his name.
A few days ago, an actor was said to have died and
it was reported that his twitter account said “I’m not dead. Stop following and listening to
the rumours.” Well, everyone went back
to their normal activities with a huge sigh of relief before it was later
discovered that the actor was truly dead and the account that discredited the
news was just a parody. The person was uncovered and forced to delete the
account but from my view, he really made light a very serious situation and
robbed the dead guy the instant heart felt messages and salutations he probably
deserved since everyone thought it was just a hoax.
Recently I heard there was a purge on Instagram but
it was to flush off robot accounts that some people, especially celebs use to
raise the number of their followers to a “Celebrity Status Standard”. Crap!
Left to me, I think the same purge should be
directed at parody accounts and let people stop hiding in the shadow of
celebrities. These people are human beings like everyone else. If you need a
lot of followers in a very short time, don’t steal someone else’s identity to
achieve your goal. There are people who according to them sell followers to
intended buyers.
Recently heard of one www.socialmediatemple.com where
people can buy as much as a hundred thousand followers.
Annoying fact is that for every social media
platform, there are parody accounts which draw a lot of unsuspecting people who
think they’re showing true devotion without knowing they are just following an
imposter’s social media account. Parody accounts is not even funny anymore and should probably carry the same
punishment as impersonation but that’s of course from my own point of view but until
then, I think parody account owners would just have to sit down and do the
right thing by either deleting the account or changing the account name and
profile description or by indicating to intending followers that the account is
just a parody (which is done by some parody accounts now.)
What are your thoughts on Parody Accounts?... Please
use the comment section below. Thanks.
Mature Minds Talk.
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