Fake Tesla to Lockheed Martini: Twitter Blue verification leads to flood of fake accounts
“Usage of Twitter continues to rise. One thing is for sure: it isn’t boring! Hit all-time high of active users today,” tweeted Elon Musk last night and one can surely agree with the ‘not boring’ statement. The platform is currently facing a flood of fake accounts thanks to Musk’s new ‘Twitter Blue verification’ program that lets anyone with $8 buy a blue tick. The end result: users are creating fake accounts after prominent brands, personalities, and politicians and tweeting posts that would be unacceptable. If Musk sees himself as a ‘meme-lord’, Twitter at the moment appears to be one of the biggest playgrounds for real-time meme creation.
One of the first examples of misuse of Twitter Blue was when someone created a Nintendoofus account and put a picture of Mario showing his middle finger to users. While the account was eventually suspended, it was up for two hours. Someone even replied to the account saying Mario would never do something like this, to which the account replied, ‘Well he just did.’
Can’t imagine why all the advertisers are pulling out of Twitter lmao pic.twitter.com/pg55WXkxhS
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 9, 2022
But the fake accounts have not just stopped at brands such as Nintendo or Valve. Someone also created a fake account for George W Bush and tweeted about killing Iraqis, and then a fake Tony Blair account ended up responding to it. The accounts were eventually suspended, but not before users had screenshots. Fake accounts for President Biden, Rudy Giuliani were also spotted, posting offensive tweets. A fake account for basketballer LeBron James was also created and tweeted that he wanted a transfer out of the Lakers.
Someone also created a fake Lockheed Martin account, claiming the company would halt sales of all weapons to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States of America, until further investigation into their record of human abuses. The account was eventually suspended as well.
A fake Tesla account was also live for several hours, tweeting, “We will be offering 10 thousand vehicles to support the Ukrainian military. Our cars are the most advanced explosive devices on the market.” The account also posted, “Unfortunately, all Tesla cars will be inoperable effective immediately. There was a breach in our navigation systems. We are working as fast as we can to assess the issue.”
According to Bloomberg, the account handle @TesIaReal, was live for nearly eight hours and posted several tweets before it was suspended. Another fake account claimed to belong to Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company in the US and tweeted that insulin was now free in the US, a rather dangerous claim to make, given insulin has a very high price tag in the country. The tweet was up for nearly three hours and managed to get 1500 likes.
Check out all the fake accounts that got their fifteen minutes of fame
this verification thing seems to be going great. unironically. pic.twitter.com/HcUnKWhC3n
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 10, 2022
BREAKING: @lockheedmartini standing up for human rights concerns pic.twitter.com/oI2yjNh2xm
— jeem ⁶ (@tajwark1) November 11, 2022
And didn’t even spend the 8 bucks pic.twitter.com/WD7CMxIO7B
— Time For Change #PRNow #GTTO #GeneralElectionNow (@AlanWolfson) November 10, 2022
pic.twitter.com/RMtdnxrPjm
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) November 10, 2022
Well, that didn’t take long at all lol
(This is not Lebron James) pic.twitter.com/wzOXuOy3pr
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 9, 2022
The TeslaReal is my favorite so far. pic.twitter.com/X1XXsdZKZT
— Pxl 🏳️🌈💉😷🌊 (Parody) (@PxlJedi) November 11, 2022
Spokesperson for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly says they’re in communication with Twitter to address the fake-but-verified Eli Lilly tweet that has been up for three hours and has 1,500 retweets and 10,000 likes https://t.co/Ai3lq50YRh pic.twitter.com/zIWDsd8c0B
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) November 10, 2022
What’s the big deal, don’t people create fake accounts all the time?
Well, the big deal is that because Twitter has a new ‘Blue’ subscription, anyone can pay $8 and get a blue tick to create a brand account name. Till now, you knew that the ‘blue tick’ next to an account meant it was official brand communication or that it was indeed that person tweeting. Now, the blue tick has no value.
Instead, if you see an outrageous tweet a brand or a personality, you will likely have to spend some time reading their Twitter handle name carefully to know that this is a fake. Sure, Twitter is suspending these accounts eventually, but clearly, the impostors are able to get past the system.
It also looks like the ‘official’ tag is making a comeback to some accounts after Musk initially tweeted that he had killed it. This appears to be the company’s attempt to ensure that there is some quick and easy way of spotting fake accounts on the platform.
Musk also tweeted, “Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio. To be more precise accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok.” And while Musk is insing that ‘tricking people is not ok,’ clearly imposters are having a great time.
Of course for Twitter, all of these fake brands and personalities are terrible news. Sure it adds ‘drama’ to Twitter, but it also means advertisers are unlikely to take the platform more seriously. No brand will be keen to spend on a platform where others can impersonate its accounts. Musk has already warned that Twitter could face bankruptcy and reports indicate that its top security executives have resigned.
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and trust, has also resigned from the company, according to reports, which is more bad news, since Roth was the one who appeared to have Musk’s support. Meanwhile, Robin Wheeler, Twitter Inc’s top sales executive, is staying on, reversing an earlier decision to resign, reported Bloomberg. Wheeler also tweeted that she was still at the company.
