- Twitter’s brand new verification system has already been misused by trolls pretending to be public figures.
- Accounts posing as George W. Bush and LeBron James are being created. Simpson have already made an appearance.
- Twitter’s owner Elon Muss laughed at the suggestion of a user to show him such accounts.
Twitter launches $8 verificationUsers were quick to use the new system to impersonate and parody celebrities and other public figures on Wednesday.
In one prominent example, a verified account pretending to be former US president George W. Bush made a tasteless joke about the 43rd president’s role in the Iraq War, tweeting: “I miss killing Iraqis” with a sad-face emoji.
The tweet was then Retweeted by an account pretending to be Tony Blair — the former UK prime minister who joined the 2003 invasion of Iraq — who added: “Same tbh.”
The Bush account’s bio also jokes about an online conspiracy theory linking Bush to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
These fake accounts were still active on Twitter Thursday morning more than ten hour after they were sent. However, at the time of publication, they had been deleted.
Elon Musk stated previously that impersonators will be “permanently suspend” unless they are clearly identified as parodies.
Blair and Bush do not have Twitter accounts. However, they are verified by their foundations. There is confusion about which accounts are genuine, as evidenced by the brief Introduction of an “Official” tag to the accounts of companies or prominent figures on WednesdayThe rolled out only a few hours earlier Musk intervened and removed the feature.
Another example of fake accounts that were verified but not verified was a user who claimed to be O.J. Simpson. This account had a handle that was nearly identical to O.J. Simpson, tweeted a reference to Simpson’s infamous 1994 murder trial — when he was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole.
“I’m not ngl I did this shit,” was the tweet of verified account ThaReal0J32, which attracted over 55,000 likes and was later deleted.
The real football star – whose username uses “The” instead of “Tha,” and “O” rather than a zero, is yet to be verified on the platform despite having almost 900,000 followers. He was previously Musk deserves to be congratulated for his successful takeoverAdds: “Maybe now, I can get verified.”
Twitter users also used the easy access verification feature to pretend to be NBA legend LeBron James, and requested that he trade the Los Angeles Lakers. The Verge. The now-suspended @KLNGJamez account — Twitter’s font means capital Ls look like the letter I — used emojis and hashtags that the real James often employs.
One user tweeted a parody of Nintendo’s gaming company. He showed Mario holding his middle finger while Joe Biden spoke about self-gratification.
Twitter’s creator responded quickly to James Felton (a British author) with a pair emojis.
Trolls made use of their spotlight to attack the new system. Anyone can get a blue tick for $8 per month to Twitter Blue.
The O.J. fake O.J. Simpson’s fake O.J. account tweeted, “Never have given a MFPer like me $8,” and blamed Musk because he gave him such “easy access”.
A fake Bush account responded to tweets concerning fake verified accounts by saying: “Jed [Bush’s younger brother]Elon is smarter.”
Musk has removed the “Official Tag” from Wednesday’s post. tweeted:“Blue check” will be the great leveler, but it was later stated in a Twitter Space the verification fee might be “A dumb decision, we’ll make it,”
