When the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, announced he was making it mandatory for Twitter users to pay $8 a month to get their accounts verified, he must have felt proud of discovering an alternative way of revenue to make his newly-acquired platform financially viable. However, Musk learned on Thursday how his ill-fated business model had already created enough chaos on Twitter. This was after several users acquired blue ticks next to their accounts by impersonating famous people to post highly objectionable tweets.
One Twitter user posed himself as former US President George W Bush and tweeted, “I miss killing Iraqis.”
Another user impersonating former British Prime Minister Tony Blair quoted that tweet and wrote, “Same tbh.”
Both accounts were immediately suspended by Twitter but the person impersonating George Bush explained why he had decided to have his account verified by paying $8. He wrote, “Y’all are missing the point about the $8. It’s a small price to make this App completely unusable and I’m assuming he’s (Musk) going to quickly learn we can get refunds from the credit cards we used if he suspends prior to a month.”
Another user posing as Nintendo posted a picture of Super Mario showing the middle finger, while another purporting to be OJ Simpson tweeted: “Ya I’m ngl I did that s***.”
One user acquired the blue tick by impersonating basketball legend LeBron James and wrote that he was ‘officially requesting a trade.’
Another user posed as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and posted an offensive tweet about Nancy Pelosi. The account @RudyGiulaniESQ was also suspended.
Until now Twitter only accorded verified status with blue ticks to notable personalities from news, entertainment, sports, politics and other walks of life after verifying those accounts. This meant that those accounts were genuine. However, after acquiring the platform, Musk announced that a user will now pay $8 per month to enjoy the verified status.
The world’s wealthiest businessman reacted with arrogance when users questioned the wisdom behind his controversial move.
