Anant Rangaswami
In the current instance, there are clear suggestions of ‘passing off’, where users are attempting to impersonate the Prime Minister’s official twitter handle. If someone uses the twitter handle @PM0India, usingg a zero instead of the capital letter ‘O’, and, to add to the confusion, uses a photograph of the prime minister as his display photograph, it is a clear case of passing off. To a lay person, @PM0India, at a glance, will read as @PMOIndia. Under the Indian Trademarks Act 1999, “The passing off action depends upon the principle that nobody has a right to represent his goods as the goods of somebody. In other words a man is not to sell his goods or services under the pretence that they are those of another person,” according to the Lawyers Club India. This is not parody. This is a case where someone intentionally attempts to represent his account as the official account of the prime minister.read less read more
Ayeshea Perera
Parody accounts, sarcasm and general irreverence are as much a hallmark of Twitter as are breaking news updates and celebrity tweets, and by cracking down on an entire culture, the PMO is just reaffirming what many already suspect. They have no sense of humour and are not really in tune with how social media works. Nor is Dr Manmohan Singh the only leader of a nation to be parodied in 140 characters or less. President Barack Obama has several parody accounts as do the Queen, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Prince Charles and a number of US senators. And even if one were to argue that the Indian parody accounts look a little too much like the original, then surely their content sets them apart? And in the case of @PMOIndia, now that it seems to have been officially verified by Twitter, where does the problem of confusion arise? Twitter’s official policies do not allow impersonation, but asks users to reveal they are a parody in the account’s username or biography. Why? Because it’s all in good fun and everyone enjoys a laugh. Everyone but the PMO apparently.read less read more
