Shashi Tharoor’s office: Techgirl was after publicity
By Bala Shah

Popular micro blogging platform Twitter projects itself as a hub for information sharing. Twitter describes Indian Minister, Shashi Tharoor, as a Twitter Advocate. In Oct, Twitter banned Techgoss writer and satirist Techgirl for spoofing Shashi.  On Nov 1, Twitter suspended an Indian who politely questioned Shashi Tharoor about that ban.

Techgirl’s Twitter satire account on the main page had Name as ‘Shashi Tharoor Fake’, website linking to her satire blog on Google’s blogger, and even the word satire in the Bio. Despite repeated requests, Twitter refused to even acknowledge Techgirl’s emails asking why she has been banned. Was it because of a misguided sense of loyalty to an Indian politician?. Techgirl claims that she would have changed the wording of her Twitter account if Twitter and/or Shashi Tharoor had sent her a mail telling her that her account could be seen as belonging to the real Shashi Tharoor.

As her colleague, I can tell you ignoring Techgirl is wrong and never works.  She wrote about being banned by the dynamic Twitter-Shashi Tharoor duo and soon the story was picked by American technology super blog Techdirt, Indian media watchdog Thehoot and popular blogs like Blogbharti and Jocalling.  At least 10 Twitter users picked up the story.  On Sunday, November 8, Indian most read English newspaper ‘Times of India’ interviewed Techgirl about the Twitter ban. Shashi Tharoor refused comment to Times of India.  The Times of India website is among the top 5 news sites in the world.

A petition was even sent to the American Electronic Frontier Foundation which protects the digital rights of people on the internet.

After the Times of India article, the key players started clarifying their position.

On Nov 11, the hugely popular Twitter made contact with Techgirl.  In a detailed email, Twitter made it clear that they had ‘received a complaint from a representative of Shashi Tharoor’ about her account impersonating the Indian Minister.  Twitter then suggested guidelines to Techgirl for setting up satire/parody accounts.

On Nov 13, Shashi Tharoor’s office made it first detailed public comment on why they had requested Twitter to stop Techgirl. Shashi Tharoor’s office sent Techgoss the following statement.

“
Regarding the article ‘Minister Shashi Tharoor evicts me from Twitter’

‘Techgirl’ used the handle ‘ShashiTharoorMP’. There was no ‘fake’ in the name, she also used the same picture as the one used my Shashi Tharoor in his account. Anyone is free to setup a @Fakeshashitharoor or @faketharoor account, we will gladly support it.

The fact that she/he has gone to town with all kinds of allegations is a clear indication of the fact that she is more interested in her 15 minutes of fame.

Twitter has every right to delete an account that would mislead people. We support twitter on this.

We only have a problem with @shashitharoorMP, we have no issue with @shashitharoorfake. People should know it's fake.

As a policy we will object to anyone who uses our images or name which would mislead people.

The fact that she chose to take this matter public without any clarification from our end shows that she was after publicity.

If you look at Shashi Tharoor's tweets, even today's, he promotes cartoons and kinds of humour based on him.
“

Techgoss has published the entire statement released by Shashi Tharoor. An image of Techgirl’s Twitter account is published at the top of this article.

Now for the first time our readers have both sides of the story. Please make up your own mind.

Techgoss note:  We stand by our account that the Name on the Twitter account was ‘Shashi Tharoor Fake’.  We have announced (via Blogbharthi) a reward of Rs. 10,000 to anyone who can prove that the name on the account was not ‘Shashi Tharoor Fake’.  We also request Shashi Tharoor’s Office to ask Twitter to release a screen image of what the satire account looked like on the first day.

But we also respect Shashi Tharoor’s office viewpoint that the name Shashi Tharoor Fake may not be enough.  All a matter of perception. Everyone can make up their own mind.