Just a few days after introducing its $7.99 subscription based blue check mark verification, Elon Musk-led Twitter on Friday suspended the service after many fake “verified” accounts popped up on the social media platform impersonating big companies and notable people.
Earlier, Twitter’s blue check mark was only available to known personalities from entertainment, politics, and journalism in order to keep the platform safe from misinformation and avoid impersonation. However, Tesla’s co-founder, Elon Musk, took over the micro-blogging platform in a $44 billion deal and decided to make amends to the verification policy.
Twitter started providing the verification badge to anyone ready to pay $7.99 for its Blue subscription, but that sort of backfired for the company as various fake accounts emerged on the social media platform. For instance, these fake accounts were created for companies like Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly, and Nestle.
The fake account for the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. tweeted that “insulin is free” after which the company’s official account had to tweet an apology and explain the matter.
We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.
— Eli Lilly and Company (@LillyPad) November 10, 2022
Meanwhile, Nintendo’s imposter account tweeted a picture of Mario showing the middle finger and Nestle’s parody account tweeted, “We steal your water and sell it back to you.”
Currently, there are two sorts of verified accounts on Twitter, one which was verified before Elon Musk’s takeover and noted that “This account is verified because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category.” Meanwhile, the second type of verified account belongs to users who subscribed to Twitter Blue for $7.99 per month.
For now, Twitter’s subscription based verification has been suspended and the company is yet to announced when it will be reinstated or its plans to counter these fake accounts on the platform.
Read more: Musk To Form Twitter Content Moderation Council to Consider Unblocking Accounts.
