Will the real Margaret Pless please stand up?
Will the real Margaret Pless please stand up?
Update: as of 10/29/15, 8:30pm EST the account described here and one additional impersonator account have been removed from Twitter. Thanks everyone for your support.
It has come to my attention that a Twitter account named "@idiediletante" has been impersonating me since about April 10, 2015. The account seems to be controlled by a user of Baphomet, and is followed by many prominent Baphites and #Gamergaters, including Fredrick "Hotwheels" Brennan, the founder and head administrator of 8chan.
The purpose of the account seems to be to mock me, make me look crazy, seed fake quotes by "me", and to confuse people looking to talk to me on Twitter. To increase verisimilitude, the Baphomet guy controlling the account even posts Tweets I wrote word-for-word, and copies my pictures and biography. He even put a Markov bot on the account, which generates nonsense mashups of other Tweets just so the number of Tweets of this account and my actual account will be similar.
Now, it would be insulting enough if the account were an obvious parody; a Straw Margaret that says dumb things for Hotwheels, Baphites, and #Gamergaters to laugh at. But it isn't - the point of the account is to undermine my credibility and put words in my mouth. The point of this account is to make everything I say seem unreliable, to discourage people from listening to what I have to say.
This isn't a "hack" in the true sense - none of my account credentials have actually been compromised. The Baphite controlling this account has simply exploited Twitter's use of Sans Serif font. (@idiediletante is indistinguishable from @idlediletante, if you capitalize the third letter.)
Reporting the impersonator seems to do nothing - I have done so four times this week, without any response from Support. I'm not sure whether it's because the account has 116 followers (basically a who's who of Baphomet and 8chan; I have the list screencapped for those who want it), or because it has existed for awhile without my noticing it. But this behavior is definitely against Twitter's Terms of Service; so I'm disturbed to see the account continue inserting itself into conversations I'm having, smearing my credibility, and posting fake Tweets which some #Gamergater or another will doubtless stitch into an image macro of quotes by "me".
Actually, I'm more than disturbed by this - I'm mad as hell. I'm mad at myself for not noticing the impersonator sooner, I'm mad at the impersonator for continuing to use my name with impunity, and I'm mad as hell at Twitter's lackadasical, "we'll get back to you next week, maybe" response to my reports. I'm mad as hell because these accounts are practically indistinguishable in a screencap, so that quotes written by this impersonator can easily be passed off as genuine. I'm pissed that now that they've been found out, the impersonator is pushing the "crazy" thing hard, just to confuse people and further undermine my credibility.
I don't expect fair play from Baphomet - I've written about them enough to know they'll take any advantage, no matter how unethical, if they think it'll scare their enemies. But in my experience, there's nothing these Baphomet shits like less than having their dirty tricks dragged into the light of day. That's why I'm writing about this here and now, to set the record straight and focus the spotlight on the Baphomet ""hacker"" who thinks he can continue smearing me with impunity.
If you're on Twitter, please report @idiediletante for impersonation.
Correction: Fredrick Brennan is no longer the owner of 8chan. As of 9/21/2015, Brennan sold the site to NT Technology, but remains its head administrator.
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