Peter Molyneux satire Twitter account remains shut down, but the man behind the parody Tweets tells Kotaku he's working with Twitter to try and get it back up and running.
The Peter Molydeux account, which parodies Lionhead game developer Peter Molyneux, was shut down earlier this month with no warning. The game developer behind the humorous tweets that poke fun at Molyneux' sometimes grandiose game development talks, says that some of his fake game pitches and videos spurred calls to Lionhead Studios.
"I've been in discussion with a few people at Lionhead," he told Kotaku Australia. "Their general thoughts regarding the account seem to be positive, but it's looking like they want me to change the use of the logo in the videos I've created, and to make it even more clear in my bio that the account is fake."
Earlier this week, Twitter responded to the man behind the account.
"They seem to be under the impression that petermolydeux is an impersonation rather than a parody," he tells Kotaku. "Their exact words, 'Impersonation is pretending to be another person or entity in order to deceive, and is strictly prohibited. This account has been suspended.'
"As others have pointed out my account is no different to the Steve Jobs/Queen and many other popular parodies on Twitter. I replied back explaining that it's a parody (Just in case the line 'Obviously this is not Peter Molyneux' didn't make that quite clear enough in my bio) and asked how to proceed from here to get my account opened up again. Now it's back to the waiting game."
Twitter was quick to respond today with this:
We have received a valid report that your account, @petermolydeux, is engaged in non-parody impersonation. Although Twitter firmly believes in the freedom of expression, impersonation that misleads, confuses, or deceives others is against the Twitter Rules (http://twitter.com/rules). Your account has been temporarily suspended due to violation of our impersonation policy.
This suspension is temporary. If you have created a parody, commentary or fan account, you will need to edit it to comply with Twitter's parody best practices before your account is reactivated. You can review our best practices here:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/106373In particular, please review and make changes to these aspects of your profile:
Account nameOnce we've reviewed the above changes and approved your account for restoration, we will need you to change the following once your account is unsuspended:
Username
Background/AvatarIf you would like an opportunity to edit your account so that it is not in violation of our impersonation policy, please reply to this email. We will restore your account, and you should promptly make any necessary changes within 48 hours of receipt of this email. Please understand that your account is subject to permanent suspension if it is found to further violate our Rules regarding impersonation.
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.
Thank you,
The fake account's creator is frustrated that he's being asked to rename the account and said he's weighing his options.
In the meantime, he asks his clamoring fans to keep their vocal support up, directing support tweets at Twitter using the #freepetermolyneux hashtag to get this situation more noticed.
"As for right now, you can join my newly created alternative account www.twitter.com/dougiedeux," he said. "Currently this is just a temp account that will mainly update on the molydeux situation but the fun will start to kick in soon with audio diaries, videos, images and updates on Dougie D's first independent videogame currently titled 'Project Mother'."
You can contact Brian Crecente, the author of this post, at brian@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.