UK politician moves to close down ‘imposter’ Twitter account

Story by

Paul Sawers

Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h (show all) Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.

A UK Conservative Party MP is attempting to force the closure of a false Twitter account that has been set up in his name.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset, doesn’t have an official Twitter account of his own, but someone has created the @JakeReesMogg handle, from which 443 tweets have been sent.

The account has over 1,500 followers at the time of writing, many of which are about politics and cricket. Most of the tweets aren’t particularly offensive, but many do claim to come from the politician himself, such as: “a busy morning out and about in my constituency, followed by a long promised family picnic.”

And the charlatan clearly has a sense of humor too, as they have turned the story around to insinuate that it’s the MP who’s impersonating them:

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We reported on a similar story in June, when @TowerBridge was closed down, and given to its ‘rightful trademark owners’. And it seems it will only be a matter of time before @JakeReesMogg will be taken offline too, given that Twitter has clear guidelines on accounts that have been set up to confuse or mislead. This is despite defiant tweets to the contrary:

Regenerating (JakeReesMogg) on Twitter_1312468267804

A spokesman for the real Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC that the MP was finding the whole episode “quite tiresome”, adding that he has never had a Twitter account.

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