Eli Lilly Clarifies It’s Not Offering Free Insulin After Tweet From Fake Verified Account—As Chaos Unfolds On Twitter

Twitter Blue launched Wednesday, giving any users who pay $8 a month the ability to be verified on the site, a feature previously only available to public figures, government officials and journalists as a way to show they are who they claim to be.

On Thursday, an account with the handle @EliLillyandCo labeled itself with the name “Eli Lilly and Company,” and by using the same logo as the company in its profile picture and with the verification checkmark, was indistinguishable from the real company (the picture has since been removed and the account has labeled itself as a parody profile).

The parody account tweeted “we are excited to announce insulin is free now.”

Roughly two and a half hours later, the actual Eli Lilly corporate account tweeted apologizing “to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” and confirmed its real handle is @Lillypad.

Users who click on a profile’s check mark can see if they were verified through Twitter Blue or for being a public figure, though Musk said Thursday that “legacy” accounts will no longer be verified in the coming months, and only those who subscribe to Twitter Blue will be.

The drastic changes implemented by Musk, including mass layoffs—have caused chaos at the company, reportedly including the departure of Yoel Roth, the head of trust and safety at the platform, and a senior member of the legal team reportedly warning staffers “all of you will be pressured by management into pushing out changes that will likely lead to major incidents.”