The days since billionaire man-child Elon Musk took over Twitter have been nothing short of pure chaos. Musk announced he would be revamping Twitter’s existing subscription plan, Twitter Blue, to allow users to purchase the much-coveted blue check of verification, which previously was used to authenticate accounts that were, well, real. Musk decided to do away with an actual verification system and instead allow anyone to simply purchase a blue check for $7.99 per month. The company said such a plan would elevate “quality conversations on Twitter.” Well, it’s already been suspended due to impersonation issues.
What impersonation issues, you ask? Countless users bought Twitter Blue to use it on “verified” parody accounts of all sorts of things, places, and people—from impersonations of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Honestly, Twitter hasn’t been this much fun in a long time.
Many of these tweets and accounts have since been taken down by the company, but here is a roundup with as many screenshots as we could find:
Eli Lilly offers up free insulin:
A fake account opened up under the name @EliLillyandCo and chose mayhem on Thursday night by tweeting the company was now offering free insulin. Incorrect, depressing, and darkly hilarious.
The electric car company that helped boost Musk to billionaire status has had ups and downs, including three fatal motorcycle crashes.
Not to be outdone, “Dave Chappelle” also has a confession.
Chiquita Bananas holds a coup:
It’s a nod to the U.S.-backed coup of Guatemala back in 1954 in support of the United Fruit Co.—now known as Chiquita Brands International.
AIPAC stands for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—it’s a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group that’s spent millions on U.S. elections. This is about Israel being accused of carrying out apartheid against Palestinians living in parts of Jerusalem.
Rudy Giuliani supports Kyrie Irving and Kanye West
Former lawyer to Donald Trump and the leader of the infamous Four Seasons presser, the parody of Giuliani (yes, he’s a hard one to parody) went with supporting antisemitic statements made by Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving and musician Kanye West, “because George Soros once pushed me down in the street and I was stuck on my back like a turtle for several minutes.” We’ll leave it there.
Fake parody accounts for historic leaders including Pope Francis all converged to argue about social media usage and facts of historical past.
Musk intervened Thursday night, announcing that all user accounts engaged in parody must include the word “parody” in not only their account’s bio, but also within the account’s name. No one is really listening to that—why would they—so Twitter has been cracking down on new verified parody accounts itself, removing tweets and disabling accounts left and right.
Meanwhile, it has suspended any new accounts from getting Twitter Blue, as the idea the company had intended to be a revenue stream now appears to be a lawsuit, or several, waiting to happen. Though the entire scene is hilarious to those of us observing from afar, Eli Lilly is one company not laughing: The company issued a real tweet from its official account acknowledging the fake account and trying to do damage control, but its stock price also fell 2.2 percent during the debacle.
