This archive report was first published on 28 December 2019.
December 28, 2019
Renowned lawyer Prof PLO Lumumba has been a thorn in the side of the Supreme Court, dazzling the justices with his legal prowess in 2017. However, his courtroom successes have been overshadowed by a more personal challenge: the proliferation of parody social media accounts in his name, picture, and form.
Despite his best efforts, Lumumba has been unable to tame the impersonators, who have created fake Twitter accounts that deceive people into believing they are the real deal. In a letter to Twitter, Lumumba rejected the parody explanation offered to him, stating that it is 'without merit' given that he does not have a Twitter account.
"Parody presupposes that I hold a genuine account, which I do not," he wrote. The parodies carry his pictures and easily deceive people that he is the author of the posts. Some of the fake accounts make it clear that they are parody accounts, while others operate under the guise of being PLO Lumumba himself.
"These individuals have created these fake accounts and have been commenting and disseminating statements on various important national, regional, and international matters using abusive, intrusive, and sometimes incomprehensible language," he wrote.
Twitter has the provision to report such impersonation accounts, and according to its site, impersonation is a violation of the Twitter rules. Accounts found to be doing this can be suspended.
