I recently ran into myself on Twitter. I came across Nathalie Trépanier – from L.A., apparently – with the same profile and virtually same handle. Fortunately, there was no picture of me accompanying the profile.
My initial surprise was followed by outrage. Oh, the injustice of it. This must be resolved immediately, I vowed. But then, I started to think about it. This sort of stuff happens to celebrities all the time. There are countless political, film and music star posers all over the social networking sphere. Obviously, this is not exactly a novel occurrence. Except (while my husband might argue the point;) I am not a star – not even close.
Was my relative anonymity the draw? The other Nathalie Trépanier was too lazy or time strapped to come up with her own profile and handle? Should I be flattered that my profile was just too good to beat? Whatever the rationale, it was not a welcome development. It made me consider a friend, who is actually famous, with a similar experience but in that case, the impersonator stole his whole identity on Facebook and started to post fictitious activities and scenarios with his family. It left him with a strong aversion to social media.
According to Twitter, impersonations are not allowed, unless intended as parody. Their definition: To pretend to be someone on the internet that you are not. Impersonation that is intended to deceive is prohibited under the Twitter Rules, it notes. https://support.twitter.com/articles/18366-impersonation-policy#
One way to counter concerns over impersonations, of course, is to be present. Twitter does offer options to authenticate a user, assuming he or she is famous. This way, followers will know if famous person X is in fact expressing an opinion or, if X is not. Not so much if you are not among the rich and famous.
The bigger question for me, though, is why do it. The only answer that I could come up with is a desire to express opinions with impunity. That lacks guts, as far as I’m concerned. It also goes against the principles of the Internet. If you have an opinion, own up to it. The Internet has been adopted so overwhelmingly in large part because it offers such incredible potential to share. We become better people when we learn from each other. To hide behind a false identity is doing yourself and the world a disservice. You have years of experience and lessons-learned to impart. Have the courage to stand behind them. If you are too ashamed to back them, they are obviously not worth sharing.
As a final note, I just changed my handle.