https://sputnikglobe.com/20221111/elon-musks-blue-tick-system-spawns-spoof-account-galore-1104025448.html

Elon Musk’s Blue Tick System Spawns Spoof Account Galore

Elon Musk’s Blue Tick System Spawns Spoof Account Galore

Sputnik International

After megabillionaire Elon Musk sealed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on October 28, amid a plethora of changes, the social media service launched a new... 11.11.2022, Sputnik International

2022-11-11T16:54+0000

2022-11-11T16:54+0000

2022-11-12T06:29+0000

x (formerly twitter)

elon musk

fake account

parody

george w. bush

tony blair

apple

nintendo

viral

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From ex-President George W Bush to the social media platform itself, Twitter has become inundated with fake profiles in the wake of the social media platform’s $8 per month paid-for verification system launch. So much for new “Chief Twit” Elon Musk’s claims that the pay system would “defeat the bots and trolls.” While users appear to be enjoying the spoof accounts galore, Twitter is in a frenzy to deactivate these parody accounts. However, right now it looks like its losing the battle, with posts being endlessly retweeted by users for kicks. Politicians, businesses, celebrities are all being parodied.TwitterThe microblogging site itself was trolled, with the impersonator offering the Blue Tick for “free” to"crypto/NFT holders who authenticated their wallet assets." Before being suspended, the parody account's tweet drummed up over 35,000 retweets and 4,990 likes.Elon Musk Elon Musk himself was also parodied, with one tweet reading, “Starting today we’ll begin offering Twitter Gold: a free subscription that gets you yearly family vacaions and nightly dinners with me. If your name is Grimes. Please come back. I love you. [sic]”George W Bush & Tony BlairSomeone impersonating ex-US President George W Bush wrote on Twitter that he “missed killing Iraqis,” with Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair appearing to share that sentiment.Rudy GiulianiOne troll account impersonated Rudy Giuliani, ex-president Donald Trump’s attorney.Lebron JamesA since-deleted account on Twitter falsely claimed to belong to NBA star Lebron James. Hiding under the handle @KINGJamez, the troll took to Twitter to claim the celebrity was requesting a trade from the L.A. Lakers. Aroldis ChapmanA fake @AroldisChapman account claimed that the Cuban-born American professional baseball relief pitcher had re-signed with the Yankees for three years.Apple American multinational technology company Apple was not spared amid the parody onslaught either. An account under the name of “appletvpius” (with the I capitalized in an effort to make it resemble the letter L) sought to redirect users to a YouTube channel.NintendoNintendo of America saw very convincing account using the name “nintendoofus” impersonating it retweeted, with Mario, the character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, “flipping the bird” for about two hours before it was taken down. The tweet was retweeted more than 2,300 times.Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company found itself targeted, with a fake account announcing to the Twitter world that "insulin is free now."Valve SoftwareA Bellevue, Washington, based video game developer, Valve Software was spoofed using the phishing trick of transposing letters. Having signed up as “valvesotfware,” the account announced that it was "excited to unveil Ricochet: Neon Prime, our next competitive platform." The tweet ratcheted up hundreds of retweets.TwitchUsers of Twitch, the US video live streaming service, were dumbfounded when new revenue splits for creators were announced via a verified Twitch account that was retweeted hundreds of times.Currently, Twitter has suspended many of the spoof accounts, while also appearing to bar new accounts from signing up for the $8 verification system.Earlier, the billionaire entrepreneur had tweeted that accounts impersonating other people must include the word "parody" in the name graph of the accounts instead of the bio graph.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221111/musk-says-twitter-accounts-impersonating-other-people-must-include-parody-in-name-graph-1104002447.html

2022

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en_EN

from ex-president george w bush to twitter itself, social media platform has become inundated with fake profiles, in the wake of the social media platform’s $8 per month paid-for verification system launch, elon musk trolled.