Kari Lake, Lockheed Martin And Eli Lilly—Here Are The Companies, Celebrities And Politicians Impersonated In Twitter Blue Chaos

Topline

Twitter suspended its new verification scheme Twitter Blue—which allows anyone to buy a verification check mark—and announced new rules for parody accounts on Friday morning after impersonators spread disinformation and generally wreaked havoc on the site this week.

Parody accounts on Twitter have targeted American Girl, Nintendo, Eli Lilly, Lebron James and Rudy … [+] Giuliani.

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Key Facts

A blue-checked Twitter account pretending to be Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake tweeted a fake concession announcement to Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs on Wednesday, even though the race hasn’t been called—the account has since been suspended.

On Thursday night, a fake Lockheed Martin account with the handle @LockheedMartini and a Twitter Blue checkmark tweeted the aerospace and weapons maker will stop sales to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S. “until further investigation into their record of human rights abuses.”

A since-suspended Twitter account made to look like the doll maker American Girl tweeted on Wednesday the company’s colonial Virginia-era doll “owned slaves,” adding, “I’m not even lying.”

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly issued an apology on Thursday clarifying it will not provide free insulin after a parody account (which has since been suspended) with a verification check and an image of the brand’s logo tweeted it would—while a separate parody account tweeted a fake apology, writing “We can do this whenever we want and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

On Thursday, another verified account pretending to be British Petroleum (BP) tweeted, “Just cause we killed the planet doesn’t mean we can’t miss it”—the account was also suspended.

A blue-checked parody American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) account, which has also been suspended, tweeted, “We (love) apartheid.”

Another parody account pretending to be banana producer Chiquita tweeted, “We have not overthrown a government since 1954”—referencing the U.S.-backed coup in Guatemala, a major banana producer.

A suspended account spoofing Tesla—Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s automotive company—with the handle @TeslaReal tweeted, “BREAKING: A second Tesla has hit the World Trade Center.”

On Wednesday, a parody account of video game giant Nintendo tweeted an image of MarioBros. Character Mario lifting his middle finger.

Parody accounts have also targeted athletes and celebrities, including a fake account imitating Lebron James tweeting the NBA star is “requesting a trade,” a fake Rudy Giuliani account tweeting the Trump attorney stands with Kyrie Irving and Kanye West—who have come under fire for posting antisemitic content—and a fake account of former President Donald Trump that stated “This is why Elon Musk’s plan doesn’t work.”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who gave permission to the Washington Post to set up an account in his name to test the new system, tweeted, “safeguards like blue checks let users be smart, critical consumers of news and information,” arguing “truth can’t be put on sale for $8.”

Key Background

Musk launched Twitter Blue last week as an $8 monthly service he hoped would level the playing field for platform users—verified accounts had been reserved primarily for celebrities, politicians, news outlets and companies. Musk tweeted last week the platform’s “current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls**t.” Under the new system, verified accounts would need to pay the $8 monthly fee to keep their checkmarks, although some said they’re not going to pay it.

Contra

Earlier on Friday, Musk laid out a new set of policies for parody accounts, including a rule that those accounts must be clearly identified, with the word “parody” in their name. Musk also responded “absolutely” when right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted the platform should feature a “malicious intent or with the intent to deceive” rule to its terms of service.

Chief Critic

Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth, who left the company one week after Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition, reportedly warned remaining staff in an internal Slack message: “all of you will be pressured by management into pushing out changes that will likely lead to major incidents.”

Tangent

Twitter has reportedly been in turmoil since Musk’s takeover late last month, as the world’s wealthiest person let go of key leadership members, including company CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, and reportedly plans to lay off roughly 50% of its workforce, including entire teams—although he reportedly asked some fired employees to return. Multiple companies, including Chipotle, United Airlines, General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, have also pulled their advertisements on the platform, over concerns Musk could lift the site’s moderation policies—even after he pledged to advertisers not to let the platform become a “free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.” Last week, he admitted the company was “having pretty serious revenue and cost challenges” before he completed the $44 billion purchase, and that “nothing has worked” to entice advertisers not to leave.