City Councilor Sue Uteck Silences, Threatens To Sue, Person Who Set Up FakeSueUteck On Twitter
from the recalibrate-your-humor-sensors dept
Comboman alerts us to yet another story of yet another politician totally overreacting to something online. Up in Halifax, Canada, someone had created typical "fakeperson" accounts for city councilor Sue Uteck (FakeSueUteck) and the mayor, Peter Kelly (FakeMayorKelly). As you hopefully know, the "fakeperson" phenomenon is pretty popular on Twitter (and blogs), with pretty much every famous (and often semi-famous) people having "fake" personas, clearly stated as such, making silly statements. Most people roll with it, but not Uteck and Kelly, who both went to the police, who apparently contacted Twitter, leading to the accounts disappearing. They both seem to claim that this was bad because people would think it was really them, but that's just ridiculous. Both accounts were named as fake and clearly were fake. But Uteck isn't backing down and is now threatening to sue whoever set up the account, if she can figure out who it was. Update: In the comments, it's been pointed out that Uteck has now backed down and is saying she'll start ignoring the fake tweets now saying "I don't want the police to waste any more precious resources on it." Seems kind of a shame they had to waste any resources on it, doesn't it?
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Filed Under: canada, critics, free speech, halixfax, peter kelly, sue uteck
Companies: twitter
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It was batman...
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Were they born this way?
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Learning Experience
"I don’t want the police to waste any more precious resources on it. I’m sure the fake tweeters will move on to something else soon enough," Uteck said in an interview.
Uteck said she will just ride out the trend for the time being and write off the entire experience as a learning exercise and a cost of being in the public eye.
"Honestly, who has the time for this? It’s just another technological change that I have to learn about."
She said the unsettling thing about the experience was the readiness with which some people believed the trash talk about Kelly on Twitter was real.
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Obigitory Internet Response....
Signed,
Spartacus
Third hovel on the left.
Misirable, Nasty Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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FakeMikeMasnick.ha
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New Twitter A/c: Fake_FakeSueUteck
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Re: It was batman...
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Ah, such wisdom in hindsight. Indeed, she probably overreacted. But some people take their reputation and the sole use of their identity kinda'... oh... I dunno... seriously. Silly them.
She cannot be blamed for availing herself, until she better understood the bigger picture, of the resources she perceived appropriate. After all, it does say "to protect and SERVE" on the sides of their patrol cars.
____________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
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