From Donald Trump to ‘Jesus Christ’, fake accounts on Twitter are getting the blue tick

On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0 launched its most criticised feature yet, the new and revamped Twitter Blue subscription that now costs $7.99 and provides blue tick verification to users.

Earlier, a blue verification tick meant that the social media giant verified the user's identity. It stood for authentication and reliability. But now, it simply means whoever can pay can get the blue tick. 

Shortly after the feature was rolled out, Twitterati started testing it out. Fake accounts of Former U.S President Donald Trump, who is banned from the social media platform for life, emerged with a blue tick next to it. The account seemed believable as it was verified but it wasn't the real Donald Trump. That account was taken down after a couple of hours.

Other verified accounts that emerged included gaming character Super Mario, Lakers' player LeBron James and even Jesus Christ.

All of these accounts had similarities. Firstly, they all had verified blue tick, they were all fake and lastly, they were all suspended in a couple of hours except for Jesus Christ's account. 

But the emergence of these accounts indicated the flaws of Twitter's new feature. The time during which the accounts remained operational, led most users to believe it to be real.

A Twitter user shared a screenshot of his posts being liked by an account named Donald Trump that had a verification checkmark.

Oh hey donald trump came back to twitter pic.twitter.com/bb0oEeR9yE

— Elon Lumbergh (@randymco) November 9, 2022

Another user shared a screenshot of a tweet by the account named LeBron James, it had a checkmark too but a minute difference between the real account of James and this impersonator was the spelling of his username that ended the last name with a 'Z'

Following sports transactions and news could become a total mess with the new verification system

Already fake LeBron and Aroldis Chapman tweets going around pic.twitter.com/vQgMqws1W0

— Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022

Jesus, an already existing parody account also opted for the Blue subscription and got verified. And, it continues to exist.

These accounts were brought in notice of Musk on Twitter. A user wrote, "The beauty of this is each account that gets verified paid $8. Twitter keeps the money and suspends the account."

The beauty of this is each account that gets verified paid $8. Twitter keeps the money and suspends the account.

It’s genius and I hope more folks do this. It’s free money for Twitter.

— Guslabu (@guslabu) November 9, 2022

Musk replied to the tweet with emojis indicating that he is rather proud of it and doesn't consider it to be a major issue. 

🎯😎💰

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022

Meanwhile, Twitter has 'killed' the double verification feature shortly after launching it with the Blue subscription. The double verification provided an official badge under the user's name and was for users who worked with the government or were extremely famous. In India, the official badge had appeared on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's account for a couple of hours before it was taken down.