I woke up Wednesday morning to text messages alerting me to an acquaintance who had revealed he was impersonating infamous Toronto mayoral candidate, Doug Ford, on ello for little over a weekend. Then he wrote about the experience on Huffington Post.
Doug Ford, the brother to outgoing mayor, Rob Ford is a slightly more terrifying version of Rob. To use a Family Guy reference, Doug is like the Stewie Griffin to Rob’s Chris Griffin. Doug is the kind of guy where at his first mayoral debate, his supporters stood up and yelled things like:
“Go home, Olivia (Chow) — Back to China!” and “He goes to his family cottage during pride parade. That’s why we love him!”
So wanting to dive into that world is understandable, it’s a bit of a cesspool and no doubt there’s something amazing lurking in the murky depths.
However, when Fake Doug Ford, claimed the experience was initiated “in jest” it didn’t do much to differentiate it from the real Doug Ford. The fake Doug Ford made a point to follow people who didn’t like him, featured a single misspelled word “ellitetist”, used actual Doug Ford images, and promoted actual Doug Ford events – like September 27th, Ford Fest. It neither came across as being strategic or satirical, it just seemed strange.
The account was set up as an authentic impersonation and connected with people who are repulsed by Doug Ford, therefore any epic insight gained couldn’t have been a surprise. I mean, if you pose as a racist, homophobic bully you really can’t be surprised if people are mean to you. Especially since you put effort into following Toronto’s Anti-Ford demographic.
if you pose as a racist, homophobic bully you really can’t be surprised if people are mean to you
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When it comes down to satire there’s a little confusion between impersonation and satirical – satirical is intended as a witty if not poignant commentary on something. While I don’t think fake Doug Ford on ello was defamatory, it definitely wasn’t satirical. If the point was to walk a few feet in a Doug Ford’s shoes – that was definitely accomplished, but does impersonating a city councillor on a new social media service for less than 5 days and surrounded by those who despise the man and his politics, really entitle anyone to have an authentic opinion of anyone’s experiences?
I did reach out to Doug Ford for a comment. He has in the past made a point to share his feelings about Twitter impersonators, saying “I feel people are cowards who hide behind Twitter (and) falsify myself,” Ford once said,”I would sue ’em if I found out who it was.” He hasn’t responded by the time I wrote this post – I’ll update it if he makes a statement.
To be fair, many of our mutual friends are applauding the creation of the account, I found it to be contrived, poorly strategized and a little offensive. Impersonating people violates the tenants of transparency and creates a climate of distrust which is a hard thing to regain.
If I had to applaud Jeremy for one thing, it’s being open enough to put himself out there regardless of what the consequences might be. I mean, you pretended to be a public official on a social network for an inconsequential amount of time, you really can’t expect to not get criticized by at least one blogger!
Right?
The post So you posed as a homophobic bully & people were mean to you? appeared first on Karmacake.
