Instagram has moved to ban an unofficial account for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s dog Toto, as fan accounts for the dog proliferate across social media platforms.
Soon after the Labor Party won the election last month, Australian comedian Lucinda Price created the Instagram account @totoalbaneseofficial for the first dog. Inspired by Twitter accounts made to represent the female cavoodle — ostensibly fan accounts that speak in first person as if they are Toto — Price wanted something that was a little less complimentary of the PM and his dog.
“My mission was to create a more risqué Toto, one that was an antidote to ‘doggo culture’,” she told Crikey in an interview.
But after just 24 hours of using @totoalbaneseofficial to post memes about “Papa Albussy” and her love of Schmackos, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, suspended the account for not following the platform’s “Community Guidelines on account integrity and authenticity”, according to a screenshot shared by Price.
Meta allows accounts dedicated to celebrities and public figures, but forbids pretending to be the individual, including “speaking in the voice or portraying yourself as the individual”.
Price’s account is one of a number of Toto Albanese accounts across Instagram and Twitter. Several of these are still active, despite also speaking in the first person as Toto and not indicating that they aren’t actually run by the dog or the PM’s staff. It’s not clear why they remain active while Price’s account was suspended. Meta has been contacted for comment.
There have been similar situations overseas. Soon after Joe Biden was inaugurated in early 2021, a statement tweeted by a fan account for the US President’s dogs Champs and Major Biden caused outrage by some who believed it to be an official account run by the administration.
Price picked up that Toto fits a theme among other politicians’ dogs: “I noticed that almost every high-powered politician of the last decade has a cavoodle-type dog. Albanese, Dutton, Morrison, Abbott and Gillard — they all have crusty dogs that get dags on their eyes.”
Price points out that while Albanese and his opposition Peter Dutton’s pets might be mistaken for being similar, they are, in her eyes, “worlds apart”.
“Toto looks vintage, which would suggest she was born prior to the cavoodle boom, which would see such dogs like Peter Dutton’s go for upwards of $4000,” she said.
Undeterred by Meta’s sanction, Price has launched a new account for Toto @totoalbussy — this time, clearly marked as a fan page.
“I am a firm believer in democracy and I think Anthony Albanese’s government is too,” Price said as her reason for launching the new account.
