Imposter Fritzl joins Twitter race

An Australian Josef Fritzl imposter has joined actor Ashton Kutcher and news giant CNN's race to be the first to have one million Twitter followers.

Notorious internet terrorist group 4chan has set up the account, named "@basementdad", which has garnered almost 300,000 followers in less than 24 hours.

The Twitter profile uses an Australian flag as its background and features an image of the convicted rapist with a Driza-Bone hat superimposed on his head.

Profile details show the account belongs to "Dr Joseph Frieschel" who lives in Australia and whose specialty is "pediatric epidemiology".

But popularity does not appear to be behind the surge in "Frieschel" followers.

A 4chan user created a computer program that produces Twitter accounts which automatically subscribe to the "@basementdad" alias.

The program's creator has distributed it to others who have been running it on their systems.

One of the comments on "Frieschel"'s account reads: "Fellow members of the Perth Epidemiological Doctors' Organisation, please discuss the ongoing issue at the board, room 4C. Keep it alive."

A call to arms by 4chan says if Kutcher is the first to have one million followers, "the internet itself will fall apart".

It invites users to download the "macro" script and urges them to begin following Dr Frieschel as part of "Operation Basement Dad".

According to statistics gathered by one 4chan member, "@basementdad" attracts 150 to 200 subscribers every minute, compared to Kutcher and CNN who get 25 followers every minute.

But the group's prank may backfire with Twitter's spam department revealing they are watching the account.

"Our spam and abuse team is aware of this," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times.

The race for one million followers on Twitter has recently gathered momentum, with video games giant Electronic Arts promising Kutcher's millionth subscriber a year's supply of games.

CNN, meanwhile, has relied on its legion of viewers around the globe to beef up its followers.

4chan is well-known after several high-profile pranks.

The group most recently pushed the nickname of its founder — moot — to the top of Time magazine's top 100 most influential people and last year hacked into former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's personal email account.

The group also pushed an image of a swastika to the top of Google's Hot Trends search, a feature which shows displays the fastest rising search terms on the internet.