(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
ISLAMABAD – Over 24 hours after his Facebook account had been taken down for involvement in mass scale spamming, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Tuesday finally recovered it, The Dependent has reliably learnt.
Chaudhry, whose account had been one of 103 taken down for “engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan”, finally managed to convince Facebook authorities that whatever he shared on the social media platform was in fact his own words and thoughts.
“It’s a coincidence that my posts resemble the other 102 accounts that you’ve taken down, sometimes word to word, sometimes in theme,” Chaudhry said in an email to Facebook, a copy of which was obtained by a cyberattack orchestrated by The Dependent’s hackers.
“Yes, sometimes I did draw inspiration from those bots and spamming accounts, which I swear I had no idea were a part of a coordinated network, but I can assure you that I typed – or sometimes pasted – the words myself. This account is managed by me – a person,” Chaudhry further wrote.
In the email the Federal Information Minister expressed disbelief that he had to put in so much effort to prove that he is a human.
“I can understand my previous parties questioning that, but a well-reputed global giant like Facebook should have better tools to separate bots from those who merely take inspiration from them,” the email read.
