It was perfect timing: a few hours after it emerged on Thursday that Htin Kyaw was the National League for Democracy’s candidate to become Myanmar’s next president, a Twitter account purporting to belong to him popped up.
With the slightly off grammar and a years-old profile photo taken during Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest, it seemed pretty suspect. Then, hours after the Suu Kyi aide was elected to the post yesterday, the supposedly ‘official’ account tweeted again:
Since @htinkyawmyanmar was created on March 10, it has accumulated more than 2,000 followers and been retweeted hundreds of times. Local media outlets Mizzima and 7Days have heralded the arrival of the new president on Twitter.
Trouble is: it’s not him.
That’s according to Zayar Thaw, an NLD lawmaker representing the capital, Naypyitaw, who posted this on his Facebook account this afternoon: “A Twitter account by the name of U Htin Kyaw has been seen. But he uses neither Facebook nor Twitter. Thank you. Zayar Thaw.”
An NLD spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
@htinkyawmyanmar, whoever you are, it’s been fun. Thanks for the inoffensive tweets.
UPDATE
According to its author, the account belongs to Italian journalist Tommaso De Benedetti, who has faked numerous accounts of world leaders. He does it to show how weak the media is, apparently. Well done.
