Parody Account
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A parody account is a type of
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
user account A user is a person who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end use ...
that portrays a fictionalized and usually comedic
parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
of a particular individual, personality, or organization, usually either a
fictional character In fiction, a character is a person or being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction o ...
,
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
, or
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
or
historical figure A historical figure is a significant person in history, who may have made important cultural, social, political, scientific or technological impacts on humanity. They are often widely known for their achievements, whether favourably or unfavoura ...
. They are commonly found on
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
and other social media platforms. Parody accounts normally satirize the personality of the person or character being mimicked. Although parody accounts are generally created as jokes and intended as satire, they are sometimes controversially regarded as
impersonation An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Living history: After close study of some historical figure, a performer may dress and speak "as" that ...
. Social media platforms have taken action to restrict parody accounts on their services to avoid confusing users. They have also on occasion been made the target of legal actions.


Platform regulation of parody accounts

Per
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
's Terms of Service as of November 2022, parody accounts are now required to indicate their status as a parody account, and are banned on impersonation grounds if they do not comply with this policy.
Bluesky Bluesky is a microblogging social media social networking service, service. Users can share short posts containing text, images, and videos. It is owned by Bluesky Social PBC, a benefit corporation based in the United States. Bluesky was dev ...
has stated that parody accounts are permitted, but must be clearly labeled as such in the account's display name and bio to avoid conflicting with the platform's impersonation policies. Both Twitter and Bluesky have implemented special labels to identify parody accounts in their user interfaces.


Notable parody accounts

* In May of 2010,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
-based comedian Josh Simpson created a parody account, @BPGlobalPR, which portrayed a comedic caricature of a purposefully inept public relations manager of BP, particularly mocking the company's
response Response may refer to: *Call and response (music), musical structure *Reaction (disambiguation) *Request–response **Output or response, the result of telecommunications input *Response (liturgy), a line answering a versicle * Response (music) o ...
to the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...
. Although Simpson conceived of the initial concept for the account, the account's posts were by his account created by a team of about 15 people, who he said had written many of the posts from the account that he considered to be his favorites. Writing in ''The New Yorker'', Matt Buchanan described @BPGlobalPR as "perhaps the first Twitter parody to receive truly mainstream attention". * On March 29, 2019, a parody account portraying a fictionalized version of
Hatsune Miku , officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Its official mascot is depicted as a sixteen-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virt ...
, with the handle "@mikumiku_ebooks", tweeted, "i created
minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
". When ''Minecraft''s actual creator,
Markus Persson Markus Alexej Persson ( , ; born 1 June 1979), known by the pseudonym Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and Video game designer, designer. He is the creator of ''Minecraft'', which is the List of best-selling video games, best-selling ...
, responded to the post, the account rebuked Persson, calling him a transphobe, and repeating the claim that they had created ''Minecraft''. The response was in reference to controversial comments Persson had made earlier that month which had been characterized as transphobic by critics. The joke that Hatsune Miku had created ''Minecraft'' was repeated by fans of the game who disapproved of Persson's comments, becoming a meme which later inspired a variant, "Hatsune Miku wrote ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
''", in response to
J.K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600&nb ...
's similarly controversial views on transgender individuals. * In June 2019, politician
Devin Nunes Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who serves as the Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since January 20, 2025, and as chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technolog ...
sued
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
and political strategist Elizabeth "Liz" Mair, on
defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
charges in response to multiple parody accounts related to him, which portrayed comedic representations of a
cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...
, purportedly owned by Nunes, and Nunes'
mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...
. The latter of the two was suspended by Twitter following a complaint from Nunes' real mother, while the one portraying Nunes' cow continued to operate. In June 2020, a judge ruled that Twitter was immune from Nunes's suit because of
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act In the United States, Section 230 is a section of the Communications Act of 1934 that was enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which is Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and generally provides immunity for ...
. A November 2019 filing to quash a subpoena seeking the identity of the cow account argued that "no reasonable person would believe that Devin Nunes's cow actually has a Twitter account" as cows "do not have the intelligence, language, or opposable digits needed to operate a Twitter account". In November 2020, the
United States Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...
issued a separate
subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
seeking information on the identity of a third parody account about Nunes, @NunesAlt, operated by the same user who had operated the previously suspended account posing as Nunes' mother. Twitter did not comply with the subpoena, with their lawyers writing in a March 2021 filing that the company was concerned that it was "but another mechanism to attack its users’
First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
rights". As the story went viral, the popularity of the defendants' accounts soared, gaining more followers than Nunes's own account, which the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' cited this as an example of the
Streisand effect The Streisand effect is an unintended consequences, unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or Censorship, censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information. The term was coined in 2005 by ...
. * On May 6, 2019, Twitter suspended the account @AOCPress, a parody account operated by Mike Morrison for being in violation of its "fake account" policy, which prohibited "misleading account information in order to engage in spamming, abusive, or disruptive behavior". The account, posing as
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the United States House of Representatives, US representative for New York's 14th congressional distric ...
, was particularly noted for having tweeted the implication that Ocasio-Cortez politically supported a member of
ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
. Morrison defended the account, stating to the conservative publication ''Human Events'' that he believed he had not violated Twitter's policies on parody accounts. In May 2023, the account was unsuspended and gained renewed attention after
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
interacted with its posts. Ocasio-Cortez subsequently cautioned her followers that the account was not affiliated with her. * On June 26, 2024, a parody account on Twitter called @deerparkpd was created, posing as the Police Department of the fictional village of Deer Park. The account received a verification badge on Twitter, giving the impression that the account was operated by a real police agency, despite being a parody. However, there was a real location in the U.S called Deer Park, located in Texas. Upon learning this, the account owners immediately announced that they were a parody, and their verification status was removed.


References

{{reflist Internet hoaxes Internet-related controversies