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"Get a life," Garnier tells Twitter fake

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Harborough MP Sir Edward Garnier has told a person pretending to be him on Twitter to "get a life and go and do something useful instead". The Tory politician discovered yesterday morning that an account on the social media network was set up last month in his name. He said he was previously unaware of the impersonator, who began tweeting using the handle @EdwardGarnier on April 22, without his knowledge or permission. He said he had no idea who was responsible and his office is now to ask Twitter to close the account. It follows 51 other Twitter accounts and is in turn followed by 28 people. Sir Edward said: "Until this Twitter account was shown to me (yesterday morning) I had no idea that a fake Twitter account had been opened in my name. "I have never had a Twitter account and have no intention of having one. "Whoever set this up is either very sad or very silly and with plenty of time on their hands because anyone who knows anything about me would soon realise that the stream of inane comments that have been Tweeted in my name bear little relation to what I think or am likely to comment on. Sir Edward, one of the country's leading libel lawyers, said the account looked plausible but pointed out a mistake in its biography which lists him as the ex Attorney General when in fact he is the ex Solicitor General. He added: "I ask anyone who has been following "me" in the mistaken belief that it was actually my account to delete or otherwise ignore the account. "I would also urge the person who set up this account to get a life and go and do something useful instead. "With any luck the account will be shut down in the very near future." He added: "Lots of MPs do have a Twitter account. The prime minister has one. "It is a modern and effective means of communication but it is not one I choose to use." Sir Edward, who is currently acting on behalf of Lord McAlpine in a high profile libel case resulting from a tweet by Sally Bercow, said: "So far there has been nothing offensive or obscene but there is no way of knowing what will be said next." The fake account appears to be more an imitation than a spoof. Yesterday its followers included Tory MPs David Rutley, Mark Garnier, James Brokenshire as well as Conservative peer Baroness Stowell of Beeston. Since Sir Edward raised his concerns about the impersonator a second account - seemingly a spoof - with the handle @NotEdGarnier has been set up. The MP's office said he was aware of the new account, which yesterday had just nine followers. Twitter says impersonation is a violation of its rules and says it may permanently suspend an account "portraying another person in s confusing or deceptive manner. Twitter's policy says: "Upon receipt of an impersonation report from the individual being impersonated, or a legally authorised representative, we will investigate the reported accounts to determine if the accounts are in violation of Twitter rules. "Upon confirming the reporter's identification, accounts determined to be in violation of our impersonation policy will either be suspended or asked to make edits." Twitter says parody accounts are permitted and stresses usernames should not be the exact name of the subject of the parody. In 2011 Leicester City Council asked Twitter to stop an account purporting to be city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby. Yesterday there were four accounts appearing to be the city mayor but non seemed to be active. Sir Peter does not use Twitter.


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