Mike Butcher, the UK arm of Techcrunch, is squatting the online identity of culture secretary Andy Burnham in protest at his suggestion that a cinema-style rating system might be introduced for the internet.
According to the FT techblog, which reports on the incident at length,
Mr Butcher will retain Mr Burnham’s Twitter account “until such time as he’s prepared to sit down and listen to some real feedback about his ideas”.
“I do intend to hand it back to him,” Mr Butcher told the FT – but only after setting up the Twitter account to follow other users “who know how the internet works, hoping he will get the kind of feedback that makes his job easier and preserves that go-getter internet culture”.
There are only seven MPs on Twitter currently, and the most prolific by a large margin, is Tom Watson, labour MP for West Bromwich East.
UPDATE: The account has been suspended – obviously someone didn’t like the joke!