The misappropriation of the identities of famous people on Twitter

Professor Ana Mancera Rueda from the Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Literary Theory at the University of Seville has carried out research on false profiles, or ‘fakes’, of famous people on the social network Twitter and the use of language on these profiles. The study addresses whether the misappropriation of the identities of famous people is normal practice on Twitter, in what cases it is permitted, what effects the parody can have on the image of the celebrity and the social role of someone who is well known, and to what extent the messages published by fake accounts can be seen as examples of bad manners or even verbal violence.