Twitterer posing as me
by John Ansell
NZ Newswire’s Laura McQuillan has alerted me to a rogue Twitterer posing as me from the address ColourblindNZ.
The vicious stuff the impersonator is putting out is, I guess, a sign that the Treatygaters believe they have something to fear.
Thanks Laura — and thanks also to Matthew Dentith. Yes, you heard right.
Matthew and I have not exactly been a mutual admiration society on this blog and others, but he was kind enough to send me this email:
Hi, John.
I thought I should touch base and tell you that there is a Twitter parody account masquerading under your name:
http://twitter.com/ColourblindNZ
and it is using some disturbing far right language (“Worldwide White Pride”, references to Klan regalia, et cetera). You might want to notify people on your blog that the account isn’t you.
You also might like to think about starting up a Twitter account so this won’t be a problem in future.
As to why I’m doing this; I know a fair number of tāngata whenua who are getting upset with the white pride remarks the parody account is making.
I may not agree with your views, but I also want a quality debate in the media, not the kind of strawman remarks the parody account is putting out there.
Yours sincerely,
Matthew Dentith, PhD
I very much appreciate that, Matthew.
For the record, I’m no longer using the name Colourblind New Zealand. As others had warned me it would be, I found the name was being wilfully misinterpreted as ‘blind to people of colour’ — which is the last thing I intended.
It was, of course, meant to tie in with the concept ‘justice is blind’ (ie unbiased).
I notice the bogus site has attracted quite a few followers, so I just hope they now realise that the increasingly outrageous tweets are not coming from me.
As I said to Laura, it’s just another battle tactic of the crooked ones. It’s a compliment, as they wouldn’t be wasting their time blackening my name if they didn’t think the Treatygate message was striking a chord.
This is proof that you are having an effect on these well overpaid parasites.
Lets hope people don’t take it seriosly and can see through it.
Probably the ignoble Willy and JT. He’s just been on TV at war with Paula Bennett over funding for some south Auckland Whanau rubbish.
Another rort and he’s probably had his grubby hands in the till again!
Hi, John.
I know about half of the followers of @ColourblindNZ, so I can confirm a large chunk of “his” followers are following it because they feel it’s a parody account. I must I only began to suspect it was a parody when the tweets about Kyle Chapman starting appearing.
Cher,
Matthew
Thanks for the heads up Mathew but I can assure you that I am not following that twitter account yet am also aware of others that have impersonated posters on this site and agree with Marvin re this issue.
John, I wouldn’t worry too much. Parody twitter accounts are not uncommon. Don Brash had a fabulous one during the last election campaign, not sure if it is still going. But seriously, just ignore it. Everyone knows it is a parody and follows it for the comedic value.
Not sure I would call it a “parody” JA – that is too kind. More like a desperate attempt at sabotage by deceit. Probably perpetrated by those few who have already tried to sabotage the standard blog with their absurd and repetitive postings under various pseudonyms. Now that you have successfully blocked those attempts, they have turned their feeble but nasty efforts towards the relatively infantile medium of Twitter, which is subject to very little regulation.
I don’t even bother with Twitter. However, I must say it was very good of Matthew to alert you.
It sounds as though the Grievers are running scared that you will spoil their seemingless bottom trough, John. That’s the only reason they would stoop to such ridiculous tactics. They aren’t worth the time of day. We have more important things to do with our time.