Fake Napoles Twitter account gains followers after surrender

A fa e account of anet im a poles, the alleged mastermind in the P billion por barrel scam, gained traction on social media site Twitter following her surrender to President A uino on Wednesday night and her subse uent transfer to the a ati ity ail the next day.

The account, with handle anet apoles, has more than followers as of yesterday afternoon.

apoles supposedly has posted over tweets since Aug. , or two days after a a ati ity court issued an arrest warrant against her on charges of serious illegal detention.

n addition to her supposed ex periences inside an air conditioned room at the detention facility, the parody account also traded barbs with various celebrities tweeting about apoles.

n one case, apoles supposedly insisted that no P treatment was given to her despite having her own room at the a ati ity ail.

he was replying to a tweet posted by broadcaster ulius abao, who sarcastically noted the supposed lac of P treatment though she had her own refrigerator and air conditioner.

The reply from the fa e account prompted abao to further tweet, “ ige na nga anet pecial Treatment na lang Alright, you get pecial Treatment .”

The account also posted various tweets, often hilarious, in reply to posts of other personalities such as those of broadcaster aren Davila, reporter i o aua, and forensic pathologist a uel Fortun.

n one post, apoles supposedly tagged the official Twitter account of President A uino, saying she is also re uesting for a washing machine inside the detention facility.

A tweet also featured an edited mug shot of apoles, with a greeting to lawyer Ferdinand Topacio replac ing apoles’ name and the case num ber of the charges filed against her.

Another photo showed apoles in a ouis uitton wheelchair, apparent ly in reference to previous incidents involving high profile personalities who appeared in wheelchairs dur ing trials.

n a tweet, the account admitted receiving a lot of curses from Twitter users. The post was in reply to a tweet calling other users to calm down since the account was only a parody of the real apoles.

The fa e account was among the various memes and hilarious posts about apoles that have gone viral on the nternet.

atirical website o What’s ews, for instance, came up with a news article claiming that apoles un derwent surgery to loo li e ustice ecretary eila de ima.

The humorous ta e of neti ens on apoles highlights the lighter side of Filipino nternet users who, since the issue bro e several months ago, have actively participated in discussions about the por barrel scam.

ast wee , thousands of Filipinos oined a protest in uneta to call for the abolition of the por barrel sys tem. The protest, dubbed as the il lion People arch, started as a post in social media site Faceboo .

n the past, various parody ac counts gained popularity among Filipino nternet users.

These include the Twitter accounts with handles P machine and am olo, which received a lot of attention during the presidential elections.

At the time, the ommission on lections had started using precinct count optical scan machines, while television networ s introduced the “hologram effect” in their respective coverage.

ased on Twitter rules, “users are al lowed to create parody, commentary, or fan accounts including role playing .”

“Twitter provides a platform for its users to share and receive a wide range of ideas and content, and we greatly value and respect our users’ expression. ecause of these principles, we do not actively monitor users’ content and will not edit or remove user content, except in cases of violations of our Terms of ervice,” read the guidelines of the social media site.

The rules on such accounts state that the username and name of the parody accounts should not list the exact name of the sub ect without distinguishing words such as “not, fa e, or fan.”

The “bio” of the account should also have “a statement to distinguish it from the real identity,” while com munication with other users should not deceive or mislead others.

The bio of handle anet apoles states “ PP W A .. h h eah ”

Aside from the said account, at least a do en other Twitter accounts used variations of the name of the alleged mastermind in the por bar rel scam.