Will The Real [Celebrity Name Here] Please Stand Up?
As popular as Twitter has become with celebrities and “civilians” alike in recent times, one thing that would have been hard for anyone to foresee is the popularity of accounts maintained by people pretending to be celebrities. It was extremely fashionable at the beginning of 2009 to do just that, and although the Twitterverse has spoiled things slightly by becoming incredibly cynical where fake accounts are concerned, there are still some very amusing – and occasionally scarily convincing – ones out there. A few organizations have even made it their business to separate real and fake celebrity accounts.
Among the funny, but non-convincing accounts out there are a fake Chuck Norris who periodically explains in unambiguous terms just how tough Chuck Norris is, a Darth Vader who is not only consistently evil but also a huge New York Yankees fan, and a now-deleted CNN Twitter feed that broke stories which were entirely false but pleasantly absurd. Along with clearly fake accounts for the Pope, the Dalai Lama and various unarguably famous but also quite dead historical figures, this tendency to create fake accounts has not gone away, but is now happening more under the surface.
One thing that needs to be noted is that creating a fake account may be amusing, but could see you running the risk of being sued if you use it for unflattering purposes. It is also far more likely to be closed by Twitter if you risk attracting the wrong kind of attention for them, so if you are thinking of running a fake celebrity Twitter, choose wisely and behave yourself – and be funny!