There are now two categories of “blue checks” and they look identical. One includes accounts that were verified before Musk took the helm and were verified to be “important to government, news, entertainment, or another specified category.” The other notes that the account is a Twitter Blue subscriber. From a fake account impersonating Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeting jokes to keep sick kids out of his cabin to an account masquerading as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co and posting that insulin is free, it was a free-for-all atmosphere for Twitter users mocking the platform’s latest feature. On Thursday, Elon Musk tweeted that any parody account should include the word “parody” in its name, not just its bio. “Actually accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, fooling people is not okay,” he said. Twitter Blue registrations were unavailable on Friday due to the flurry of fake accounts. Here are some of the tweets that show the fake accounts overtaking the platform, with some accounts taking days before being removed from Twitter:
Whoever was behind this was brilliant. Bring it back with Parody clearly listed without the blue check mark. Because the tweets were genius. pic.twitter.com/LiM3pbrAl3 — Vicki Campbell🇨🇦 (@merry123459) November 12, 2022 Did you know that Coca Cola increases the risk of cancer by 67%? But it’s worth it! #RealMagic — Coca Cola (@PRCocaCola) November 10, 2022
