German foreign minister: Twitter parody account a foreign policy risk

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her team did not get the joke: At least not on Monday, when they announced they had taken action against a satirical Twitter account impersonating the minister to avoid confusion with the foreign minister's official account.

The parody account, dubbed Baerbockpress, is now explicitly marked as such.

"In the past, it has actually come to confusion," explained a spokesman for the ministry in Berlin. Before, the similarity between the satire account and official handle had been uncanny, he added.

Baerbockpress still has the same profile photo as Baerbock's official profile, but is now labelled: "Foreign Minister Parody Annalena Baerbock."

The account makes fun of the Green politician by promising diplomatic immunity to its 50,000 or so followers or sending out prank messages in broken English for example, with one quipping: "China want to sell me for stupid, but now I know how the rabbit runs." Baerbock is often teased for making mistakes when speaking English.

Every public figure, even ministers, must accept being made fun of, stressed the spokesman. In this particular case, however, the account represented a tangible risk to foreign policy. He referred for example, to crises such as the recent military coup in Niger, which the parody account also tackled, becoming muddled on Twitter.

The culprit behind the parody account is not known.

Twitter did not respond to comment on the matter. But Twitter's stance on the issue may not be too difficult to discern, given owner Elon Musk's insistence last year, that fake accounts impersonating others must include the word "parody" in their names.