New Delhi: Twitter suspended two fake accounts impersonating Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee Wednesday, after he registered a complaint with the microblogging site.
Banerjee had alerted Twitter Tuesday that he was being impersonated on the site. “I am being impersonated on Twitter. There are now at least two different fake accounts, which include ‘AbhijitBanerj’ and ‘AbhijitBabrjee’… Let me clear one thing that I am not on Twitter,” he told News18.
The two accounts @AbhijitBanrjee and @AbhijitBanerj created a lot of confusion on the social media site after they retweeted posts that talked about Banerjee’s conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday. One of them even thanked Gandhi for the conversation.
However, it was soon clarified that the accounts were fake. Historian Ramachandra Guha took to Twitter Wednesday to relay a message from the economist — “If you are on social media will you publicize the fact that I am being impersonated on Twitter as AbhijitBanerj. I am not on Twitter”.
A message from the economist Abhijit Banerjee:
"If you are on social media will you publicize the fact that I am being impersonated on Twitter as AbhijitBanerj. I am not on Twitter".
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) May 6, 2020
Also read: Provide cash to India’s poorest 60% to revive economy: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee
Mahua Moitra, Chiki Sarkar call out fake accounts
Aside from Guha, Chiki Sarkar, publisher and founder of Juggernaut Books that published Banerjee and fellow Nobel laureate Esther Duflo’s latest book Good Economics for Hard Times also clarified that Banerjee was not on Twitter and all handles claiming to be him were fake.
Folks – a quick note to say our author the economist Abhijit Banerjee is NOT on Twitter. All handles claiming to be him are false. Please pass on. Thanks https://t.co/m0cozAGfp0
— Chiki Sarkar (@Chikisarkar) May 6, 2020
All India Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra was one of the first to point out that not one but two accounts were impersonating Banerjee.
Hello twitter folks – passing on a message from the real Dr. Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Laureate & Economist to say he is NOT on twitter and that BOTH@AbhijitBanrjee and @AbhijitBanerj
are fake accounts in the process of being reported to twitter pic.twitter.com/Z2dFTiY5PL
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) May 6, 2020
Abhijit Banerjee was in conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday where the award-winning economist said that India needed a large fiscal stimulus to put cash in the hands of the poorest of the poor following the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
Also read: Give out food stocks, expand PDS, don’t skimp: Amartya Sen, Raghuram Rajan & Abhijit Banerjee