After university officials complain, Twitter bans Harker impersonator

A person using Twitter to impersonate university President Patrick Harker has been suspended from the site after university officials complained about the posts.

University spokesman John Brennan said he became aware of the Twitter page in late August, and after consulting other officials at the Office of Communications and Marketing, decided to contact the popular social networking site to request that the page be taken down.

"There wasn't anything particularly offensive with what was on there, but no one wants someone speaking on their behalf," Brennan said. "Why have something out there that someone could mistake as being from you?"

The person, whose identity is unknown, used the handle @patrickharker and displayed on the page a photograph of Harker and a link to Harker's official biography.

Visitors to the page now see only a message stating the account was suspended, but a cached version of the original page is still available through Google.

The cached version shows the account was first used April 30, during the height of the H1N1 scare on campus, and many of the posts are about the flu outbreak. Subsequent posts mostly reference university events, as well as pop culture.

"Congrats Class of '09! We'll need to pull some hot freshmen girls for the fall to make up for what we just let go," read one tweet, posted a few days after Spring Commencement.

Another read, "Board meeting this afternoon to discuss....something or other. I wonder if I have an intern I can send in my place."

Twitter's Terms of Use allow users to impersonate someone else, but stipulate that the account must be a parody that makes it obvious to a reasonable person that it's a joke. Accounts with a clear intent to mislead or confuse readers can be permanently suspended, the policy states.

Impersonation of public figures on Twitter has been an issue in the past. In May, St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa sued Twitter over a fake account, and later that month, rapper Kanye West used his blog to inform fans that a Twitter account in his name was written by an impersonator.

In response, this summer Twitter began offering verified accounts, which allow public figures to confirm to Twitter the validity of their account and display a seal of authenticity on their page.

Twitter officials did not respond to several requests for comment.

Brennan said Twitter acted quickly on the university's request. He said he did not know if Harker was made aware of the Twitter page.