In the face of recent rise and spread of parody accounts on Twitter, The Department of State Services (DSS), has joined the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in clearing the air about Twitter accounts in its name.
In a statement issued by DSS spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya, the Department emphasized that it does not currently operate any account on Twitter.
“This is to inform the public and particularly, social media users that the Department of State Services does not own, use or operate any official twitter handles. The service, therefore, disowns the ones, notably DSS255 and DSSNG, currently in circulation.”
The statement further claimed that the said twitter handles bear the Department’s symbols and are designed by the initiators to deceive, misinform, and defraud unsuspecting persons, as well as spread fake news and falsehood. Members of the public were warned to disregard messages from such accounts. Also, a detailed investigation to bring the suspects to book has begun, the DSS says.
Since the announcement, @dss255 has been taken down but @dssng still remains.
While a parody is an imitation of a famous person or body with a deliberate exaggeration for comic effect, Twitter, the platform on which most of these accounts operate has set rules for accepting an account for parody.
Twitter says in its policy document that a parody account must dissociate the person being imitated from the account using words like “fake” or “parody” on the account’s Bio and account name. These were conspicuously absent from the Bio of @dssng; it rather has a Bio which says “it’s a secret”.
Other parody accounts monitored by ETN24 had a disclaimer on their Bio, but missed the part where Twitter required them to have another disclaimer on the account name. Accounts like FRSC Nigeria, Federal SARS, EFCCC Nigeria, Nigerian Army, ICPC Naija, Nigerian Police Force and State CID, all clearly stated in their Bios that they are parody accounts. Some went further to provide the link to the real agency asking followers to report real cases to them. But they all fell short of reflecting this parody on the account name; an action required by Twitter.
The distinguishing feature of a real account is a verified blue tick in cases where a famous person or establishment has been verified by Twitter. In the absence of such blue tick, bios of real accounts on social media mostly state its authenticity using words like “Official”. However, some of the parody accounts reviewed by this publication used the word “Official Parody Account”. With a largely semi-educated population, some hold that this may present a problem, as a lot of twitter users do not understand what the word “parody” means.
DSS, originally called SSS (State Security Services), is the main domestic intelligence agency in Nigeria. It operates as a department within the Presidency, under the control of the National Security Adviser (NSA). Its major function includes protecting and defending the country against domestic threats, upholding and enforcing criminal laws, protection of Presidents, Vice Presidents, their immediate family members, and other high ranking officials.
Earlier in September, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) had raised alarm over what they termed fraudulent spread of fake news as well as tarnishing of the Force’s image by a new parody Twitter handle. The Force also disowned the account and advised members of the public to stop “following” the handle. It further revealed that investigation was on to determine the source of the handle and deal with it appropriately.
In September 2017, the Nation’s attention was drawn to the issue of parody account by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. The Minister urged Nigerians to disregard fake news in circulation by a parody Twitter account in his name which tweeted that the President is due to leave Nigeria for the USA on Monday to condole with President Trump over the flood situation in Houston. According to him, the parody account was circulating an old NTA News video showing a past journey to the US by the President.
“This is a 2015 NTA News video that has been repackaged to look current and to give the impression that the President left Daura, where he is celebrating Eid-el-Kabir, directly for New York.”
