fake account?
Twitter praise suddenly appears twice - Aiwanger causes a stir on the net
Created: 01/10/2022 14:07
By: Mike Schier
Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger caused a shitstorm with a post on Twitter that raised suspicions of fake accounts.
Munich – Social networks are a great platform for politicians to get in touch with – often younger – voters.
And they are a dangerous zone where they can completely embarrass themselves.
The latter happened - once again - to Hubert Aiwanger.
But the process is more than an ordinary shitstorm.
There is at least the suspicion that Aiwanger (or employees) run fake accounts to praise Aiwanger.
Aiwanger triggers Shitstorm: Two tweets praise the party leader with the same wording
What happened?
In a heated Twitter debate on Thursday evening, the leader of the Free Voters suddenly posted lines that praised him in the third person: his intellect, his pragmatism.
Spicy: The exact same lines can be found 19 minutes earlier with a user who calls himself @PeterMl64582938.
The question immediately arises as to whether Aiwanger also used this account and just forgot to register.
The minister himself, of course, denied it.
His spokesman says he only quoted the tweet – but does not explain why Aiwanger did not identify the quote.
The statement is important to the spokesman: "Hubert Aiwanger does not have a fake account, such allegations are far-fetched."
In fact, one can doubt that the ominous Peter Müller is Aiwanger's second account.
He criticizes politicians and their diets, scolds Islam and when it comes to Corona, the word dictatorship is used.
It's not the first time Aiwanger's anger has surfaced on Twitter
God knows it's not the first time that Aiwanger has had trouble on Twitter.
In 2012, when politics was just warming up to the new medium, Aiwanger suddenly tweeted blonde jokes.
The excitement was great.
Aiwanger spoke of an employee's "technical error" and explained: "If things continue like this, I'll switch off the crap." In fact, the @AiwangerHubert account was soon history, but the politician later returned as @HubertAiwanger.
Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters), chairman of his party and Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria.
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
But after the 2021 federal election, he got even more trouble because he published so-called post-election surveys before the polling stations closed, which the free voters saw under five percent.
He provided this with the note: "Please give us the last votes now." Actually, it is forbidden to publish such numbers, the penalty is up to 50,000 euros.
The then CSU General Markus Blume spoke of an "incredible case of election manipulation".
Aiwanger described the tweet, which he deleted after criticizing comments, as a "mishap".
Incidentally, the Federal Returning Officer ultimately did not impose a penalty – on the not exactly flattering justification that Aiwanger had not posted real surveys, but fictitious numbers.
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In discussions, the deputy prime minister, who now has almost 25,000 followers, acts quite casually.
Critics - including politicians from other parties - are sometimes blocked.
To do this, he gets involved in wild debates, even with anonymous users.
When an account called "Pig" criticized him for his energy policy on Thursday, Aiwanger replies: "Grunt".
This time the authorship is clear.
