The move follows a surge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay US$8 for a monthly subscription to the coveted blue tick that previously featured verified accounts of politicians, actors and other high-profile figures. Fake accounts of several big brands have appeared with the blue tick, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin. To combat impersonation, we’ve added an “Official” tag to some accounts. —@TwitterSupport “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ tag to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account wrote on Friday. Musk on Wednesday tweeted that he had “killed” the new label, just hours after its launch. Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co has apologized after a fraud account tweeted that insulin would be free, amid political backlash and scrutiny over the drug’s high prices. “We apologize to those who received a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” the company said, repeating the name of its Twitter handle. Among other examples, a series of misleading Tweets about Tesla from a verified account with the same profile picture as the company’s official account were released on the platform. “Twitter has worked over the last several years to try to improve it [misinformation]. And it looks like Elon Musk has revealed that within a few weeks,” said AJ Bauer, a professor at the University of Alabama. Meanwhile, some users said the option to sign up for Twitter Blue, the $8 subscription service that comes with blue tick verification, had disappeared. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on this. “Check with the Twitter API [application programming interface] and the in-app purchase for Twitter Blue Verified is no longer listed for production,” app researcher Jane Manchun Wong said in a tweet. In Canada, users received an error message with a note saying that Twitter Blue will not be available in the country in the future.
Suspensions
Musk had said on Sunday that Twitter users who engage in impersonation without clearly identifying it as a “parody” account will be permanently suspended without warning. While some had revealed they were a parody account in their description, several other fake brand accounts, including Nintendo and BP, were suspended. Earlier in the day, Musk said his companies will be well positioned in 2023 despite the possibility of a tough economy. Musk’s tweet came a day after he mentioned the possibility of Twitter bankruptcy. In his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter will not be able to “survive the coming economic downturn” if it fails to grow subscription revenue to offset declining advertising revenue, three people told Reuters people who saw the message.
