Twitter has warned the owner of an account spoofing a newspaper executive that they are to reveal his identity to the company.
Northcliffe Media, which is owned by the Daily Mail Group, issued a subpoena to the social network through a Californian court.
The account,
@UnSteveDorkland, is a "parody" of Northcliffe's chief executive Steve Auckland.
The company said the tweets were "obsessive and offensive".
"I can confirm we have taken action to ask Twitter for help in identifying the individual in order to protect our staff from harassment," Mr Auckland said in a statement.
"We made no request for, nor had any input in, a decision to stop tweeting. Our first priority is a duty of care to all of our employees."
