Tom Tilley joins calls to UNMASK anonymous troll PRGuy

Former TripleJ and The Project presenter Tom Tilley has called out Dan Andrews' anonymous troll PRGuy and fake sock-puppet accounts that seek to spin narratives on the behalf of politicians.

Appearing on Paul Murray Live, Tilley, whose political comments typically lean left of centre, supported the unmasking of anonymous accounts which seek to sway the public sentiment on important political matters.

"When someone's going to step into the public debate and try and have a lot of influence, and in this case succeed, you want to know who they are," he said.

"Particularly when someone has a lot of influence and power you want to know who they are.

"PRGuy has 55,000 followers on Twitter and he probably only speaks to one part of the political spectrum but he, I'm assuming it's a he, it might be a she, but makes a lot of noise and has a lot of influence on the public debate and was part of a really kind of intense, strong online support for Dan Andrews when he made some of the most controversial decisions during the tougher turning points of the lockdowns."

Speculation has been rife for years now that the PRGuy account has some connection, paid or not, to the Daniel Andrews government given its undying devotion to the regime.

Not long after the account was created in 2020, it was almost immediately flocked to and followed by a large amount of left-wing, blue-tick verified Twitter accounts – an unusual occurrence for new anonymous accounts. It was this attention that started the rumours that the account was operated by someone of significance.

Rebel News lawyers filed in the Federal Court earlier this week to compel Silicon Valley giant Twitter to reveal personal details related to the account.

It remains likely that the Federal Court of Australia will approve the request, given that Yemini is expected to sue PRGuy17 for defamation. Ordinarily, Twitter does not reveal information about its users unless there is a court order in place.