Fake Telegram account still not removed - still not reinstated on Twitter

Social media, and dare I say all data handling, is indeed out of our control...

There is someone posing as me on Telegram - using my image - and not just my image but my photo (I took the photo - it is mine) and my good name. I like to think that I honor my name every day by being honest and integral, and by doing what’s right even if it’s not the popular thing to do. As a matter of fact, this is my modus operans.

I do not like posers.

My Twitter account, where over 50,000 people were interested in my posts after just a couple of months, is STILL suspended following filing about 20 ‘appeals’ to reinstate it, and the announcement by Elon that all suspended accounts would be reinstated. My account is lost in digital limbo, and I was not able to retrieve/save any of my data before it happened since I had no notice.

On the subject of these atrocities, in the latter case, I can’t get back in. On the former case, ‘I’ (the poser ‘I’) can’t get out.

How it is possible that we, the creators of these social media accounts, the OWNERS of this personal data, these names and images, have zero point zero zero control over any of it? Do their ‘Report Fake Account’ and ‘Appeal a locked or suspended account’ tabs and pages just simply exist to appease any sense that we may have an iota of control over the use of our names and images? I smell an adjustment coming in the realm of IT law - context ranging from the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 in Australia, to the Criminal Code of Canada, to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act in the United States. Someone has to do something here. None of us are protected - AT ALL.

Twitter

My Twitter account is indeed still suspended following filing many ‘appeals’ to reinstate my account. All I ever get in my email inbox is some nonsense auto-message saying they’ve added it to the ‘original case’. I think this equates to the Twitter waste bin. I mean, they don’t even have algorithm that subs in your name to personalize it? Just ‘Hello’. How very cordial. Robot.

Here’s another appeal that I sent today.

And they are getting my reports. I guess they think further action is not appropriate. You know what I think is inappropriate: censorship.

They are continuing to review my information. I don’t believe that anyone is doing anything but persisting with censoring me. And just as a reminder, I was suspended for posting CDC data that apparently violated the Twitter Rules. It’s funny how both ‘Twitter’ and ‘Rules’ are capitalized in ‘Twitter Rules’. Kind of -Moses-complex-y, isn’t it?

I will not celebrate anyone (I’m looking at you Elon), claiming that good changes have been made in the context of Twitter until EVERYONE who was censored for speaking science is actually reinstated. How hard can it be? Click the little button and let the fact-based information flow. Recently, I was not able to replace Steve Kirsch in a Twitter space debate since I am not ‘allowed’ to speak my voice on the Twitter platform.

Censorship: no voice = no discourse = no information.

So I can’t get back into my own account in the case of Twitter.

Telegram

On the flip side, I can’t get out of a fake account on Telegram where the person responsible for making the account (and incessantly posting on it!) has stolen my photo and name and is using both to misrepresent me. I am documenting this now again because I am not sure people quite understand the gravity of the ‘situation set-up’ here.

Here’s the reality. There’s nothing functional about the fake account reporting process of Telegram. That leads me to believe that there’s probably nothing functional about filing any other claim pertaining to their pull-down list of possible report types including, ‘Spam’, ‘Fake Account’, ‘Violence’, ‘Child Abuse’, ‘Pornography’ and ‘Other’. What this appears to mean is that anyone can make a poser account and post whatever they want using anyone else’s image and name. That’s… INSANE.

Also, the direct approach is out since this poser has made it impossible to comment on any posts, so there’s no option to reach out and to politely ask that the person refrain from posting anything, and/or posing as me.

8,639 people are currently subscribed to this fake account. I implore you to share this to promote an ‘unsubscribe-fest’ and to unsubscribe from it if you might have been fooled into thinking this was my account. I can’t think of another course of action that might work to put a stop to this.

This is not just my problem.

We live in a digital world and very soon, we won’t be independent of it, at all. It will be very difficult to live outside of the data realm and what people don’t seem to be quite connecting to is that data can, and will, be used or misused. It will have nothing to do with whether or not you have done something claimed or not. The computer said so. It’ll have nothing to do with whether or not you are a good person. The computer said so. It will have nothing to do with whether or not it’s actually YOU. The computer said so.

The potential is all around us and has been for quite some time, and this ‘Telegram experience’ is a perfect example of data misuse. If anyone can pose as you, and post anything they like - without recourse, that could have very negative effects on your life. And I am not just talking about becoming a liability to anyone wishing to hire you. It was important for me to document this again in the eventuality that this fake account stays around in perpetuity or takes a down-turn.

Safety first. And effectiveness?

So, in the wise words a young Rick on the subject of the fake Telegram accounts: LEMME OUT. LEMME OUT. THIS IS NOT A DANCE.