Fake Liberal/Progressive Twitter Accounts (IT Cell Caught in Action)
On the internet you could be talking to a dog and not know the difference. This post is the story of one such incident that I personally faced.
Last week, this tweet landed on my timeline:
The fact that women meet my wife on a daily basis and remain straight is conclusive proof that sexuality is not a choice. pic.twitter.com/XyIVbKk9VH
— Francis Thomas (@prawncis) October 16, 2019
But while I was reading the entire thread I noticed a (now deleted) tweet that called the original tweeter “trash”. That tweet has been captured in the following screenshot:
#Feminist hypocrisy.
— Gender Inequal INDIA (@IndiaGender) October 16, 2019
Picture 1: All men are trash.
Picture 2: Don't Generalize women.
Whats more hypocritical is that She went beyond Generalisation & made an absolute statement. #India #feminism #mentoo pic.twitter.com/2pKia58V0t
It said that the person who posted his wife’s (?) picture was trash because he was ?sexualizing his wife? The profile picture, name, and bio of this account suggested that it was a lady and a feminist.
But it did not make a lot of sense to me (who calls myself a feminist). I started a telegram group and asked a few other friends whether they can find it objectionable and they were also not finding anything grossly objectionable in the original tweet.
So I risked being a sealion and asked the responder on why they thought it was trash:
I'm trying to understand your argument. What makes this *not* a sincere public appreciation of one's wife's beauty? Is it the way it is written?
— Akshay S Dinesh 🏳️🌈 أكشي ☂ (@asdofindia) October 16, 2019
Is there any way for a man to appreciate a woman's beauty in public without it becoming objectification?
I got blocked immediately.
All going well till now.
Next day, I see that the account I was interacting with has been deleted/renamed. When I click on the @krutiswit link on the twitter reply I sent on android it took me to the current profile which is @hinduwolverine.
Now, the bio of this account reads at this point: “All Indian Dalit Society Activist | Humanity Student from JNU | Rahul Gandhi fan | Polymeth”
That’s when I realized. This is a fake account. That’s not a new thing. There are a lot of fake accounts on twitter. But this fake account is a fake liberal and distorts the very idea of liberalism. Or a fake feminist who distorts the very idea of feminism. That kind of fake narratives is being peddled in the society through these fake accounts. That is a new thing for me.
I asked people who are well versed with the twitter-verse and got the answer that this is the proverbial “IT cell” in action.
A bit scary when it happens for the first time. But having read Permanent Record recently, I will be prepared. Most important lesson is not to get derailed by critics on twitter because if they don’t make sense they’re probably fake accounts who do not want to make sense.