Lawmaker won't 'give in to terrorists' after troll takes over his Twitter account

Indiana Rep. Ed Soliday shut down his Twitter account after he called an Indiana CEO and philanthropist "stupid" in a tweet last month.

Now, Soliday's old account is in the hands of a new owner who has vowed to troll the Valparaiso Republican until the lawmaker apologizes to businessman Don Brown.

"If Soliday wants his account back, he is welcome to have it," the new owner of @RepSoliday tweeted Monday. "All he needs to do is make a public, genuine apology to @DonBrownIndy."

This cyber-squatting is another thing users have to worry about in the social media age.

Soliday could have avoided this hassle by deleting his old tweets and holding onto the account. He could have kept the account indefinitely, an Indiana University cybersecurity expert said, but Twitter's user guidelines require him to log in and send a tweet once every six months.

The problems started last month, when Soliday found himself on the losing side of a Twitter spat after Brown criticized legislation that threatened to effectively kick electric car maker Tesla out of Indiana.

"HB 1592 is nothing but an idiotic sop to the dealership association. Move into the 21st century. This stupid bill is bad for IN," Brown said in a Tweet as Soliday's committee took up his measure.

Soliday responded with: "@DonBrownIndy not nearly as stupid as you are!!!!"

Brown told IndyStar Tuesday that he was initially taken aback by Soliday's comment.

"I’ve been called a lot of things in the course of my career, but stupid is not one of them," he said.

Brown has founded two successful Indiana companies and holds four college degrees. He recently donated $30 million to the Indiana University School of Medicine — the largest gift the school has ever received from an alumnus.

The Twitter backlash was swift and fierce. Soliday deleted his account.

The new owner of @RepSoliday makes it clear in the profile and tweets that the account is no longer being run by Soliday. Soliday, the new user explained, made a big mistake.

"Fun fact," the user tweeted. "Twitter handles are available 30 days after you delete an account."

In direct messages to IndyStar, the new owner of @RepSoliday declined to say who he or she is and asked to be identified as a "concerned Hoosier."

The new owner understands that taking possession of the account is an "immature" response to Soliday's comments.

"Sometimes, however, immaturity begets immaturity," the owner said in a direct message via Twitter. "I believed it would be an effective way to teach him that he can't call any constituent stupid and not apologize for it."

Soliday said he won't be bullied.

"I do not give in to terrorists," Soliday told IndyStar in a telephone interview. "What's the point in, a month later, rehashing it."

In hindsight, Soliday said he wishes he would have held onto the Twitter account. He hopes that others will learn from this situation.

"Now to have some guy hijack the account and try to resurrect something," Soliday said, "it's just getting tiresome."

Posing as an elected official is a misdemeanor in Indiana, Soliday said. The troll may be annoying, but Soliday said he or she is not violating the law.

Joseph A. Tomain, a law professor and senior fellow at Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity, said the new owner of @RepSoliday appears to be acting legally and within Twitter's user guidelines.

While Twitter is likely to terminate the account if the new owner starts posting offensive comments or begins posing as Soliday, Tomain said the lawmaker "probably has no legal claims so long as the user does not misrepresent that he is the actual Rep. Soliday."

Brown said it's surprising to have someone anonymously sticking up for him, but wants the focus to shift to the issues.

"I’m more concerned about the broader issues at play," he said. "It’s just deeply concerning as a fiscal conservative, as someone who has started five businesses in Indiana ... it never even dawned on me to approach legislature to get protection against my competitors."

As for an apology? That would be nice, Brown said.

"It was inappropriate for Rep. Soliday to call any concerned constituent stupid," Brown said. "I don’t think my tweet merited that sort of response."

Soliday said he regrets responding to Brown the way he did. He said he believes he and Brown hashed out their issues in the process of rewriting the bill in a way that allowed Tesla to keep selling vehicles in Indiana.

"If Mr. Brown feels we have more to say to one another," Soliday said, "we can have that conversation."

IndyStar reporter Holly Hays contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.