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Twitter terminates Steve Jobs parodist

Not the Fake Steve Jobs, a fake Steve Jobs.

Twitter has axed the highly popular parody account of a counterfeit Steve Jobs.

The tweeter, @ceoSteveJobs, had a following of more than 460,000 Twitterati, GeekSmack reported on Tuesday night when revealing the account suspension, and @ceoSteveJobs had contributed more than 650 satirical tweets in the persona of the Apple chief executive. But no more.

@ceoSteveJobs is not to be confused with the well-known Fake Steve Jobs, who ended his parodistic efforts this January after the flesh-and-blood Steve Jobs took a third medical leave of absence.

That change in Real Steve Jobs' status apparently didn't bother @ceoSteveJobs, but his account was suspended after "someone from Apple has complained to Twitter about the @ceoSteveJobs Twitter account," he told TechCrunch this January – perhaps not coincidentally the day after a law banning some online impersonations went into effect in the state of California.

The law in question states, in part, that "... any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another actual person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person is guilty of a public offense ..."

Exactly how @ceoSteveJobs was "intimidating, threatening, or defrauding" Real Steve Jobs remains unclear. Twitter's Parody, Commentary, and Fan Accounts Policy, however, is more restrictive, saying: "The profile name should not list the exact name of the subject without some other distinguishing word, such as 'not,' 'fake,' or 'fan'."

Why it took from early January until now to silence the account is unknown and perhaps unknowable. The tweeter – who told TechCrunch that he wants to be called Christof – appears to be back, however, tweeting again as @iJobsy, whose fourth tweet, sent late Tuesday night, was "Picking out my outfit for tomorrow. Turtleneck or turtleneck?"

Hmm... Was that intimidating, threatening, or defrauding? Unlikely. And the use of the profile name "@iJobsy" appear to skirt Twitter's parody policy.

@iJobsy had under 600 followers on Wednesday morning, but as the word gets out – and after the media storm engendered by the real Jobs & Co unveiling what's almost certain to be their latest iPad in San Francisco – that number is sure to grow, notwithstanding the Real Steve Jobs' medical status. ®

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