Kelly O’Dwyer. Photo: Stefan Postles/Getty Images

An attempt to shut down a Twitter parody account attacking assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer had turned into a major headache for the Liberal Party and the Liberal MP after a copyright claim lodged to stop it appeared to be false.

Fairfax Media reports that Twitter has issued a “please explain” to the party after a representative from the Victorian Liberal Party sent microblogging site a “Digital Millennium Copyright Act (USA) takedown notice”, claiming the copyright to photographs used by the account.

Fairfax says Jennifer Freind (sic) signed a statement declaring that “Kelly O’Dwyer” owned the copyright to the photos, and “the information in this notification is accurate, and I state under penalty of perjury that I am authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner”.

The account was locked following the claim, but Fairfax says it is the rightful copyright owner of most of the images, which appears to make the declaration false.

Twitter subsequently restored the account, saying “we have determined that the notice is invalid” and has subsequently written to the Liberals asking for “additional information from the reporting party”, according to a statement.

O’Dwyer’s traditionally safe seat in Melbourne’s inner-east, held for 19 years by former treasurer Peter Costello, is being threatened by Greens candidate Jason Ball.

The account under scrutiny, @Kelly_dnuSophie, compares O’Dwyer to former fellow Victorian MP Sophie Mirabella, who lost her previously safe seat of Indi to independent Cathy McGowan in 2013. Mirabella is standing again as Liberal candidate in Indi.

Fairfax says O’Dwyer’s office has not responded to questions or a request for an interview, but has spoken to one of the students behind the account, which now has more than 600 followers.

O’Dwyer’s own Twitter account has nearly 15,000 followers. She was the MP on ABC TV’s Q&A program who explained the benefits of a $6000 toaster for a small business to audience member Duncan Storrar after he asked about tax cuts for people on the minimum wage at the start of the election campaign.

You can read the Twitter full story here.

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