Elon Musk’s Updated Twitter Blue Subscription Leads to an Increase in ‘Verified’ Accounts Impersonating Celebrities and Organizations

Shortly after Elon Musk launched the pay-for-verification system on Twitter, some users took full advantage of the new update.

Last week, Musk announced a new feature for the app that will allow users to pay $8/month to receive perks and a blue verification badge. Some users decided to use the feature to their advantage and impersonate celebrities to see their content boosted without any hard work.

However, this has affected many individuals, such as professional basketball player LeBron James. A fake account claiming to be Lebron gained traction after the impersonator claimed the baller is demanding a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers.

https://twitter.com/siskoveralt/status/1590449294683037696?s=46&t=Nc05PXxGvGKoGr9XTC0bxA

There’s also an account claiming to be Nintendo of America that shows an image of the popular Mario character showing the middle finger.

https://twitter.com/themattprov/status/1590476929294946304?s=46&t=Nc05PXxGvGKoGr9XTC0bxA

The updated Twitter Blue subscription includes subscribers receiving a blue badge identical to the ones given to celebrities. Nevertheless, the badges are actually different and users will be able to tell once they click on the blue tick.

On Wednesday, Twitter tested a new feature that gives celebrities and organizations a gray “official” label. Unfortunately, the idea was scrapped hours later.

“I just killed it,” Musk tweeted after the label was added to government accounts. “Please note that Twitter will do lots of d*mb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”

Nevertheless, a handful of fake accounts have been suspended since the update, but with since the massive layoff, it’s become increasingly difficult for Twitter to identify each subscriber.