Sigma TV chief executive officer Chrysanthos Tsouroullis briefly had his X account locked after “doxing” a well-known parody account on the platform which goes by the name “Jho Low”.
“Doxing” is another word for the action of publishing private or identifying information about another internet user, which is typically done with malicious intent.
The spat had begun on Tuesday when the account had in characteristic fashion claimed Tsouroullis owes “millions” to the state in unpaid VAT.
The account’s gimmick is that it ironically poses as internationally wanted fugitive Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman who became a Cypriot citizen under the “golden passport” scheme in 2015.
The account regularly pokes fun at and makes accusations against politicians, officials, businesspeople and journalists among others.
The identity of Low has been a mystery and the subject of much speculation as the account has built a large following. The same individual runs several other parody accounts including ‘government spokesman MiniMe’ and ‘Empress Filippa of Cyprus’, taking aim at Konstantinos Letymbiotis and First Lady Philippa Karsera respectively.
The real Low’s citizenship was revoked in June, but the parody account lives on, pointing out perceived corruption in cartoon-like speech bubble posts between an image of Low and his “godfather” former President Nicos Anastasiades.
The post which irked Tsouroullis read, “if any old poor sod owes €2,000 or €3,000 they get put in prison, but Tsouroullis owes us millions in VAT and everyone is turning a blind eye.”
In the attached cartoon, “Low” asked, “godfather, with that case that was brought in court against Sigma about the millions they owe in VAT and aren’t paying, what’s going to happen?”
“Anastasiades” replied “enough already, how many times can I let him off the hook? We have other things to do.”
Tsouroullis then quote tweeted the post in question, describing it as “yet more evidence of the dark role this awful account and his friends are serving.”
He insisted Sigma “does not even owe a single euro in VAT” and added, “I am calling on him to prove I am lying.”
He then added, “in a little while we will know who it is, and then the ‘why’ will be easy”.
Shortly after this post, he then wrote another, saying he had “engaged” with the account as “I do not tolerate lies and character assassinations”, before posting a screenshot of a now-deleted post from the “Jho Low” account which contained an email address within an image.
He then linked that email address to an individual, posting a full name and picture to the site.
The post was then reported to X by a number of social media users as doxing, which contravenes X’s terms of service. As a result, the platform locked Tsouroullis’ account until he deleted the post in question.
After having deleted the post, he regained access to his account, and wrote in a new post, “look and see that when the masks fall, audacity also disappears, and cowardice remains. May the blabbermouths of falsehood and vagrancy rejoice in you.”
Then, uncharacteristically for a man who has tweeted over 9,000 times, he posted nothing to his own account for 21 hours, before returning to post an article about the Cyprus problem shortly before 5pm on Wednesday.
“Low”, on the other hand, has continued unperturbed, posting a screenshot of the notification of Tsouroullis’ account being locked, as well as various other posts throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday.
