Telstra: Our fake Stephen Conroy won’t lose his job
Telstra has reacted to the revelation that Twitter’s Fake Stephen Conroy is employed by the telco, by putting up a blog posting explaining its position.
Rather than issuing a press release, Telstra’s Mike Hickinbotham – the company’s senior adviser on social media – has posted a message on his The Scrum blog, which is part of the company’s Now We Are Talking site.
As Mumbrella reported earlier today, the much-discussed Fake Stephen Conroy – who was outspoken in highlighting what he presented as the government’s cluelessness over digital issues including Internet filtering – was revealed as Telstra employee Leslie Nassar.
But with speculation that the Twitter profile had been deleted – it disappeared for several hours today – Hickinbotham has posted a message headed “The real facts about Telstra and the fake Stephen Conroy”.
In it he says: “Leslie is not going to lose his job as a result of announcing he is the Fake Stephen Conroy; Telstra did not shut down Leslie’s Twitter account; Telstra did not out Leslie as the Fake Stephen Conroy; Telstra’s policy is that only selected spokepeople deal with the media.”
Pointing to the fact that discussions in social media are sometimes seen as a grey area where they feel like a private conversation, but can get wider exposure, he says: “The case of Leslie is different, he understands the whimsical nature of social media and in particular Twitter. This isn’t a case of solving the problem by offering social media training. Leslie made a conscious decision to engage in social media.”
It is unclear whether that leaves the door open for other disciplinary action, short of dismissal, for Nassar.
Hickinbotham, who Tweets as @M_Hickinbotham is due to give a presentation to Mumbrella’s masterclass in social media next month on how Tesltra uses Twitter.
Update: The row has escalated with further Fake Stephen Conroy postings telling Hickinbotham: “I was fine with being told to drop FSC, but don’t throw me under the fucking bus just to make Telstra look social-media savvy.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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So no Telstra employee can have a “popular” Twitter account unless they are a selected spokseperson?
And they are going to “train” staff in social media?
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The Catholic Church shows us how Telstra will train on social media:
“This is your social media. If you touch it, you will go blind.”
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@Zac, yes and no, no one can have a account talking s… about a delicate jurassic industry worth billions of dollars.
Zac, you know I like you very much, but don’t jump in conclusions, it’s silly.
Lucio
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