When does Twitter parody cross the line?

Last week, a Twitter account made the news by disappearing — briefly. Depending on whom you ask, the account either grossly impersonated federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, or parodied her unfortunate tendency to speak (and tweet) in platitudes.

Parody accounts on Twitter are nothing new, and like all social-media accounts, some are better than others. Far too many mistake anger for humour.

For instance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a more than a few devoted to him. Most of them suck. But even the most committed Liberals will admit (privately, quietly, after dark) that the Trudeau Googles account, which purports to be the prime minister’s Google search history, is hilarious. Naturally, there are copycat accounts for Stephen Harper, John Horgan and others, but they’re just not as clever or inspired.

The faux-McKenna account was judged by some to have crossed a line. Her office got involved, asking Twitter to shut down the account and briefly succeeding.

If that’s true, they not only overreacted and overreached, but gave Canadian politics one of its most clearcut examples of the Streisand effect — where attempts to hide something only make it more visible. In other words, what you protest, you promote. So what prompted such a reaction, and what was different about the fake McKenna account? A couple of things.

For starters, it looked an awful lot like the real thing. It used the same photo as McKenna’s own account, and even the account name was a single letter different from the real thing. (It’s since been changed to make the distinction more clear.)

Yes, upon close inspection, it was fairly obvious. But Twitter isn’t really a “close inspection” medium.

If you saw one or two of its tweets in your timeline, on a mobile device, if you weren’t paying super close attention, and particularly if you were predisposed not to like McKenna or her government, yes, you could be duped. Many were, including Dragon’s Den star and, not incidentally, vocal Conservative supporter Brett Wilson.

Not ideal, but some perspective is in order. McKenna called the account “identity theft,” which was going too far. I don’t blame her for reacting; nobody likes being made fun of. But this account wasn’t being used to drain her bank accounts, get a passport or set up an embarrassing profile on a niche dating site such as FlatEarthersBall.com, which I just made up.

All that said, parody should be clear, and suggesting this one might have veered a little too close isn’t unreasonable.

Much more seriously, the account was also accused of being misogynist. That’s a serious charge, even and especially when it comes to social media, which is all too often horrible for female politicians. The sludge directed at former B.C. premier Christy Clark was legitimately depressing, and unfortunately, I’m sure it’s much the same for people such as B.C. Finance Minister Carole James or Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who just this year deleted her Facebook account, saying it was toxic.

She had a point. But even when it’s angry, not all criticism is unfair, much less sexist. And to my very male eyes — which slogged through years of looking at examples of the real thing with Clark’s social-media channels — the McKenna parody didn’t look or feel like misogyny.

If you disagree, fair enough. It’s entirely possible I missed a particularly nasty or ill-advised tweet, or this account particularly rubbed you the wrong way. If that’s the case, I’d be interested to listen.

But if your position is that it’s inherently sexist to parody female politicians in any way, that’s not going to help anyone in the long run — and I’m sure you feel the same way about, say, Elizabeth May, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, each frequent targets of parody, some of it vicious.

That said, it’s not hard to understand why McKenna and her office reacted. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of material out there that obviously crosses the line. McKenna has been a frequent target.

With so much anger in politics, it’s getting harder to laugh at each other. We should encourage more laughter, not less.

Maclean Kay was former premier Christy Clark’s speechwriter for five years.