Microsoft wants fake Sinofsky tweeter shut down

SOFTWARE SHOP Microsoft is not very happy with a Twitter imposter pretending to be the president of its Windows and Windows Live divisions, Steven Sinofsky.

The fake tweeter has been teasing Microsoft for a little while now, and this week it began contacting the account holder through its Building Windows 8 account, asking him to close it down.

"@StevenSinofsky please see guidelines on parody and impersonation. Your account is not following them and has been reported," it said in a message. In response to a question from another user, it added, "all in good humor, too much mail from confused people as account name a bit too real. follow the rules is all we ask :-)."

The account holder has made it pretty clear that he is not the real Steven, even going so far as to say that in his profile. "I'm all about Windows 8 right now. And having a laugh. Oh, I'm not 'the' Steven Sinofsky by the way," he said. "He's got a little project to focus on for now."

However, he is acting like he works at Microsoft, which could confuse some Twitter users that don't read all the information available to them.

"If we provided Kinect control of #Windows8, what gestures would link to what actions? For instance which gesture to put the PC to sleep?" asked one message, and "@BenThePCGuy Drop by my office Monday. I want to talk to you about all this #WP7 stuff you've been doing. You're supposed to be 'The PC Guy'", said another.

The Windows Build8 Twitter account has blocked the faker. We have asked him about his motives. µ