If you were an active China watcher on Twitter in 2013, it's likely you followed @RelevantOrgans, a pitch-perfect satire of the idiotic, tone-deaf bravado that so often comes out of Zhongnanhai.
@RelevantOrgans was unfortunately retired when its mysterious founder moved (returned?) to Canada, since then the account has only tweeted sporadically about major events.
In the time being however, one of China's actual propaganda outlets joined Twitter. In recent months @PDChina, the verified account of the People's Daily newspaper, has become ever more active (@PDChina is often hilarious for the same reasons as @relevantorgans, but unintentionally). On Thursday night, the people behind @PDChina apparently became aware of their comrades in propaganda, and issued a salvo against @RelevantOrgans:
We have noticed that a Twitter account has been misleading people by stealing People’s Daily’s web address and National emblem of China to make false impression that the account is related to China officials or People’s Daily.
english.cpc.people.com.cn belongs to People’s Daily, but it has now been falsely used by a Twitter user “The Relevant Organs” @relevantorgans, that called itself as “China’s soft-power vanguard”.
We hereby solemnly declare that this Twitter account is not related to or does not have connection with any Chinese official bodies, including People’s Daily.
People’s Daily publicly condemns such theft and forgery conduct and demands the user of this account to make immediate rectification. [All sic.]
@RelevantOrgans responded as one would expect:
Investigating unauthorized @PDChina account. Initial data indicates 2,000 followers since May 2011.
— The Relevant Organs (@relevantorgans) April 25, 2014We have over 5,000 years of history and 1.3 billion followers once you get rid of a bunch of girls. Which news source would YOU trust?
— The Relevant Organs (@relevantorgans) April 25, 2014Smoking gun: So-called @pdchina “caught” us a year after our retirement. Much too fast for a real Party news organ. Rookie move, comrades.
— The Relevant Organs (@relevantorgans) April 25, 2014[Image by James Griffiths]
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