Fake accounts violating trademarks on Twitter
Elon Musk said on Twitter, just days after taking over one of the world's most influential social media platforms, that Twitter would adjust the verification process for users, stressing that it would "revamp the entire verification process right now."
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The new Twitter owner is impersonating Twitter trademarks after Elon Musk changed the criteria for getting a verified account.
Under the change, the user only has to pay $7.99 for the monthly subscription to be verified on Twitter.
fake accounts
Because of this action, many well-known brands such as Pepsi, Nestlé and Tesla have experienced major crises after being misrepresented through fake accounts.
A quick check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE showed that PEPICO had tweeted "Coke is better" and got 14.8K likes. The account was removed, but a screenshot was taken by @MarkJacob16 and posted to the platform which received 88.9K likes. The official Pepsi Twitter account did not address this issue.
Popular food and beverage company Nestle has also been targeted, tweeting "We're stealing your water and selling it to you again" by NestleDeathCult with a verified blue tick. It garnered more than 44.9 thousand likes. The account has also been deleted. The official Nestlé account has not made any statement on its account.
Musk's Tesla was also a target. TeslaReal published "Breaking: A Second Tesla Car Hit the World Trade Center". MARKETING-INTERACTIVE did a quick check, the account still exists but the tweet can't be found. Musk Motors has not made an official statement on its Twitter account.
Although it doesn't get as much attention, McDonald's is also being plagiarized on Twitter. The fake account tweeted that the fast food chain would be offering alternative meats going forward. The official account on Twitter was not commented.
An American tech company that sells weapons and planes also had a fake account trying to impersonate the company. The fake account said it would stop selling weapons to other countries, and garnered 195,000 likes. On its official page, business as usual and did not mention the fake account.
The Nintendo impersonator was also impersonated as, instead of words, the fake account tweeted an image of the famous character Mario pointing with her middle finger. This post received 157.8 thousand likes. The official Twitter account did not comment on this incident.
Twitter has also taken action against accounts impersonating NBA star LeBron James and former President George W. Bush.
This new functionality that Musk introduced has become a problem. So it's no wonder when major brands have paused their advertising spending on the platform and these include Forbes, Dyson, Mazda, PBS Kids, Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, Cole Haan and Coca-Cola. Currently, about 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, despite it being far behind Facebook and Google.
Twitter first launched the service earlier last week in its iPhone app, but as of Friday, the option is no longer available. The platform has become a hotbed of misinformation with many players getting checkmarks to impersonate brands, politicians and celebrities.
