Hacker News Reader

Comment by CalChris | Hacker News Reader

It wasn't simply the morally reprehensible position. It was also the act of impersonation. The bot identified impersonation.

View on HN

Ok, so does impersonation allow you to be spammed? It seems like impersonation is non-consequential, or at least hard to measure. Especially on such an ephemeral platform.

If you are going to dismiss impersonation on such an ephemeral platform, why do you care about spamming?

In most platforms impersonating a living person is against the TOS. If twitter were doing their job, they would ban them.

I think it's pretty easy to see that impersonation has negative consequences. How would you feel if someone impersonated you to your employer, family, or friend, and said something disagreeable?

I do agree that "They broke the rules" might not be a good justification for further rule-breaking.

Your sympathies are very telling.

Are you seriously insinuating this user is a neo-Nazi because he's trying to have a polite conversation about what is and is not ethical? That's shameful.

Of course not. Why would you jump to that conclusion? When you see someone with a "Thin Blue Line" decal on their car, do you assume that he/she is a police officer who murders minorities? No, but you know where their allegiance rests.

As CalChris said:

>If you are going to dismiss impersonation on such an ephemeral platform, why do you care about spamming?

Maybe you didn't read enough of the replies to understand the context. I don't know.

Technically it's not impersonation. The trolls are creating fake personae, but not stealing anyone's identity.

Once you use a real person's picture w/o their consent, I think you're walking a fine line between a fake persona and impersonation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com