Digital minister’s Twitter profile falls victim to online identity theft

Tim Burrowes

December 22, 2008 12:01

Australia’s digital minister has fallen victim to online identity theft.

Pranksters protesting Stephen Conroy’s plans to filter the Internet in Australia have taken over his identity on Twitter, and have been sending out updates on his behalf.

In the seven weeks since the profile appeared, “Stephen Conroy” has put out 73 messages and gained 217 followers. Many of the postings are designed to make him appear clueless about the web, and some of the comments make it clear he has been receiving messages from people who believe they are talking to the real Stephen Conroy. Among the most ridiculous messages purporting to be from him are:

“This world wide web thingo is dangerous! I was filling in a sheet for an email account and it put all my details in there! How did it know?!”

Subscribe to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.