Twitter overturns ban on parody account

The government has failed in its bid to silence a spoof JobCentre Plus Twitter feed that mocked welfare policies.

Twitter bosses shut down the satirical @UKJCP last month, following a complaint from the Department for Work and Pensions.

But it was restored on Saturday morning after those behind the account successfully petitioned the social media site, saying that suspending the account amounted to censorship by ‘effectively silencing criticism of UK Government’.

Civil servants had previously evoked threats of libel proceedings against Twitter in its bid to closed the account, a document published under a Freedom Of Information request, reveals.

In an earlier official complaint, the DWP's brand and public information manager, Jon Woodcock, said: ‘The @UKJCP account has been set up with deliberate and malicious intent to devalue and criticise the work of JobCentre Plus.

‘There are a number of rude and potentially libelous tweets aimed at UK government, elected politicians and the heads of large private sector organisations who are committed to working with government on reducing unemployment.’

The department further stated that it wished to use the account – which has 12,300 followers – for itself.

Twitter refused to comment on the initial suspension for ‘privacy reasons’ but pointed to its policies for parody accounts, impersonation, and trademark violations.

However, the account, which has adapted the official JobCentre Plus logo so it read ‘Job Centre Pus, was upfront about being a parody, saying in its description: ‘Welfare rights information, news, satire and parody. We're not the real UK Job Centre Plus we're just…funnier.’

Published: 10 Feb 2014