According to a study conducted by the Arcadia company, there are 704 accounts whose name and profile photo clearly refer to Benito Mussolini. These are usually small, often inactive accounts. They use the name to gain visibility. On social media, however, it is not difficult to find profiles that impersonate historical figures, starting with the case of Marilyn Monroe.
Benito Mussolini died on April 28, 1945. The fact is known, it certainly won’t be a spoiler for all those who are watching M – Son of the Century, the Sky series starring Luca Marinelli. Here is his interview for Fanpage.it. Facebook would have arrived 58 years lateror. The first tweet it would only appear 61 years later. And there first image on Instagram exactly 65 years years later. Yet they exist on all these social networks hundreds of accounts of Benito Mussolini.
The research was conducted by the analyst firm Arcadia. On social media they exist in everything 704 accounts of Benito Mussolini. Let’s be clear, these are not homonyms. In Italy there are various restrictions on the names with which you can call your children. Although it is sometimes read to the contrary, Benito is accepted as the name even though it is used less and less.
In the 1992according to Istat, children called Benito were 62. In the 2023 Alone 8. Of course, it is not clear whether the registry office accepts this name in case of the surname Mussolini. All the 704 accounts analyzed by Arcadia are clearly referring to the dictator which marked Italian history. In fact, the study only takes into consideration the accounts that accompany the name Benito Mussolini one of his profile picture.
What Benito Mussolini’s accounts do
Most of these accounts are on X (formerly Twitter). Only on this platform can they be found 636. Others 62 I’m on Facebook and 6 that remain can be found on Instagram. According to the research, one of X’s accounts, named @elduce83, had also managed to obtain the Blue tick. As we write this article, however, the check appears to have been removed and the posts obscured. No account on TikTokwhich seems to have followed a clearer policy given that searching for Benito Mussolini only finds a warning against hate speech.
Second Domenico Giordano of Arcadia the behavior of these accounts is almost always the same. They are small, they have few followers, they haven’t published for years and when they did they spread posts to celebrate Mussolini. Scattered initiatives therefore, which in the cases analyzed did not gather many users. Of course, it’s also possible that larger pages perhaps born at the beginning of the social era have been closed by the platforms.
Of the active ones, explains Giordano, there is a curious fact. Arcadia writes: “What also emerges in this census is not an ideological or revanchist choice, but rather a desire to use perceptive notoriety both to gain visibility and for social phishing activities.” So we start from the name and the image to attract other usersperhaps deluded that they have found one official page.
The Case of Marilyn Monroe: How Historical Figures’ Accounts Work
Now, net of case of Benito Mussolini there is a broader fact that concerns historical figures. Even those who were not responsible for wars and massacres. In fact, there are profiles linked to men and women who for age reasons would never have been able to open a social account. Yet there are, as in the case of Marilyn Monroe. In 2017 Bloomberg had interviewed Jamie Salterfounder and CEO of Authentic Brands Group.
His group manages the rights of different brandseven of deceased stars such as Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. Rights which evidently also include the management of their social profiles, given that this company also owns profiles thousands of followers who continuously publish photos and phrases of the characters alternating them with advertisements for products and memorabilia.
In Italy the case of is curious Enrico Berlinguer. There is a page on Facebook that has his name and photo with over 500,000 followers, linked to an Instagram account with over 30,000 followers. The two pages are active and publish various contents on the history of the secretary of the Italian Communist Party who passed away in June 1984. Both pages, we read in the caption, are fan pages managed on a non-profit basis by the staff of the enricoberlinguer.it portal.
