GOPers Impersonate State Reps on Twitter

mr-lynne   |   Thu, Oct 22, 2009 7:52 AM EST

Hartford Advocate (hat tip Greg Laden):

Barack Obama’s victory last year left many Republicans bemoaning their party’s ineptitude when it came to political exploitation of the Web. Democrats, they admitted, were far ahead in the art of using the Internet to seduce voters.

So Connecticut Republicans decided it was time to boldly forge into the 21st century, only to stumble when one of their decidedly deceptive experiments ran into trouble last week.

Twitter, Inc., shut down 33 fake Twitter accounts created by Republicans using the names of Democratic state representatives. The Republican scheme was to send out posts under the Democrats’ names mocking the liberal tax-and-spend bastards.

The ethics of it are completely lost on them:

“That’s unfortunate,” was state Republican Chairman Chris Healy’s response when told of Twitter, Inc.’s decision. “I’m not quite sure what the issue is, other than that the Democrats were successful in stopping free speech.”

…

Their Twitter ploy may have misfired, but Connecticut Republicans aren’t giving up on those 33 Web sites created in the names of the Democratic lawmakers. (The fake Twitter posts were linked back to those Web sites.)

I must admit though, this is progress for the GOP after a fashion.  It’s as if someone hypothesized how Tricky Dick would operate in the internet age.

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5 Comments . Comments are closed.

  1. Connecticut lege is very blue

    Rep: 75% D Sen: 67% D

    I have no idea how many Democrats are conservadems or any other finer details.

    stomv   @   Tue 4 Dec 7:00 PM

  2. It's all they got.

    Impersonating the opposition is not the same as satirizing them. Chris Healy does a good job conflating the two.

    Impersonating is also called rat-fucking. It is not unlike stealing letterhead and fraudulently sending a mailing out in their name, also known as the crime of mail fraud.  

    What Healy and the Republicans did is unquestionably dishonorable.  If they had done it through the US mail, they'd be looking at a criminal record and jail time.

    Imagine being a Republican and thinking the best way to spend your time was to dishonestly make you opponent look bad.

    It's all they got.

    neilsagan   @   Tue 4 Dec 7:00 PM

  3. 107 Comments...

    ... here, including:

    Oh, give me a freaking break. The U.S. Constitution never intended for people to have the right to commit fraud, deceive, or mislead.

    Furthermore, Twitter can shut down whatever accounts it wants to. It appears they have a Terms of Service agreement that all their users must accept, and it was violated.

    If these goons are concerned about free speech, they can scream whatever they want to as long as it doesn't violate any municipal laws about disturbing the peace. But no medium is obligated to provide the bullhorn.

    I wonder what other deceptive practices they believe they have a "constitutional" right to engage in? And I wonder where the bottom of the barrel is? Every time I think the GOP has reached it, it turns out to be just another layer of sludge.

    and

    And the people complaining that Twitter can't censor them are the some folks who are against net neutrality.

    Imagine an internet where Rupert Murdoch buys a major portion and gives it to Faux. Bet there will be a lot of censorship then !

    Also, Twitter isn't restricting speech. Its just saying you have to be honest about who you are.

    Otherwise, What is to stop me from Twittering under the name NewtG and making all sorts of licivious postings ?

    mr-lynne   @   Tue 4 Dec 7:00 PM

  4. That's nothing...

    There are a bunch of people (badly) impersonating Democrats in Washington, DC, using such names as "Harry Reid" and "Mary Landrieu".

    sabutai   @   Tue 4 Dec 7:00 PM

  5. Beyond ineptitude

    Sarah Palin got more play on Saturday Night Live than Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich did.  Why not make an unreal reality show about major American institutions devolving like the Soviet Union did.  It made the opposition party not a real party after all.  Fractions going to the Alex Jones crowd and even liberals dumping support of noBama for his nonresponse to just about everything.

    lasthorseman   @   Tue 4 Dec 7:00 PM

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