ELON Musk’s plan to allow Twitter users to pay for a “blue tick” has rapidly descended into chaos after accounts “verified” as George W Bush and Tony Blair said they “miss killing Iraqis”.
The new “Twitter Blue” feature, which allows users of the social media platform to pay a subscription fee of £6.99 or $7.99 a month to become “verified”, was rolled out in the UK and other nations on Thursday.
Countless scam and fake accounts sprang up in the wake of the rollout.
In one example, an account pretending to be former US president George W Bush – with the blue tick verification badge to prove it – tweeted: “I miss killing Iraqis [sad face emoji].”
The tweet, which is still live and still has the blue tick next to its account, was shared by another fake account pretending to be former prime minister Blair. It wrote: “Same tbh [to be honest].”
In response to criticism aimed at its tweets, the Bush account wrote: “Y’all are missing the point about the $8. It’s a small price to make this app completely unusable and I’m assuming he [Musk] is going to quickly learn we can get refunds from the credit cards we used if he suspends us prior to a month.”
They jokingly added: “Is what I would say if I was someone other than the greatest president America has ever known.”
Elsewhere, scams have cropped up pretending to be Twitter itself and trying to rob people of their crypto assets, such as NFTs and cryptocurrency.
One such scammer pretending to be the official account of the social media platform wrote: “Whoa, Twitter Blue is now available for free. Crypto/NFT holders can now get Twitter Blue for free by authenticating their wallet assets.
“Authenticate now: [scam website].
“Ps, there might be a little surprise after authenticating … bird NFT?”
This fake twitter account is impersonating twitter corporate with a newly purchased check mark and gotten 34k rts. This is going great so far. How long before having a check mark will just be a hallmark of scamming? pic.twitter.com/RV3ARb91J7
— Alex Goldman (@AGoldmund) November 9, 2022
The tweet was shared tens of thousands of times before the account was suspended.
Other incidents include an account pretending to be the famously litigious games firm Nintendo.
Impersonating the company’s American branch, a verified Twitter user went viral after it shared an image of Mario swearing. That account has also now been suspended.
Elsewhere, LeBron James, the American basketball star, had a fake account verified as him announce plans to leave the LA Lakers, and ice hockey star Connor McDavid had one say he had been officially traded to another team.
The chaos, which is showing little sign of slowing down, is reportedly leading to an exodus of advertisers. Musk has aimed to calm their nerves as advertising is Twitter’s largest revenue stream.
The billionaire is said to have asked key advertisers to “give it a minute and kind of see how things are evolving” as he promised his paid-for blue ticks would stamp out misinformation, not amplify it.
