Australian comedy group The Chaser is suspended by Twitter after impersonating Donald Trump on election day and tweeting: ‘Don’t vote for me, I’m a massive idiot’
Australian satirical comedy group The Chaser has been unverified and suspended on Twitter for impersonating Donald Trump on election day.
At about 9:30pm on Tuesday night (AEST), the comedians changed the name of their @chaser account to ‘Donald J Trump’ and replaced their avatar with a picture of the president, then tweeted: ‘Don’t vote for me, I’m a massive idiot.’
At the time, millions of people across American were heading to their local polling centre to vote for either the incumbent or Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden.
Banned! Australian satirical comedy group The Chaser have been unverified and suspended on Twitter for impersonating U.S. President Donald Trump (pictured) on election day
In response to the prank, Twitter de-verified the @chaser account – presumably over fears American voters might think Trump had actually given up the presidential race.
Later, the account was suspended entirely. When a user attempts to access the profile, they get the message: ‘Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate Twitter Rules’.
The Chaser was likely banned from Twitter due a violation of the website’s impersonation policy, which states that accounts must not pose ‘as another person, brand or organisation in a confusing or deceptive manner’.
Breaking these rules can result in an account being permanently suspended.
Humour or misinformation? At about 9:30pm on Tuesday night (AEST), the comedians changed the name of their @chaser account to ‘Donald J Trump’ and replaced their avatar with a picture of Trump, then tweeted: ‘Don’t vote for me, I’m a massive idiot’
However, the impersonation policy does make exceptions when it comes to ‘parody’ accounts – which means The Chaser’s account may have been unfairly suspended.
Once Twitter recognises the account is intended to be satirical, the profile will most likely be restored with its blue tick verification.
‘We understand why Twitter would do this,’ said The Chaser’s website editor, Cam Smith. ‘After all, it would not be out of the ordinary for Trump to tweet something so outlandish. If anything this would have been one of his more reasonable tweets, so we could see how people might get mixed up.’
‘They took our tick’: In response to the prank, Twitter de-verified the @chaser account – presumably over fears American voters might think Trump had actually given up the presidential race
Blocked: Later, the account was suspended entirely. When a user attempts to access the profile, they get the message: ‘Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate Twitter Rules’
‘It’s impressive that Twitter only took 20 minutes to un-verify our account, given it took them almost four years to start fact-checking the actual president.
‘I guess that’s to be expected though, we all know comedians words are much more dangerous than those of the guy who controls 50 per cent of the world’s nukes.’
The controversial comedy troupe is no stranger to trouble involving international politicians.
In 2007, members of the group dressed as Osama bin Laden were arrested outside the hotel where George W. Bush was staying after driving a fake Canadian motorcade into the APEC conference to demonstrate the futility of the event’s security.
Causing a stir: The controversial comedy troupe is no stranger to trouble involving international politicians. In 2007, members of the group dressed as Osama bin Laden were arrested outside the hotel where George W. Bush was staying after driving a fake Canadian motorcade into the APEC conference to demonstrate the futility of the event’s security. Pictured: The Chaser member Chas Licciardello in June 2016