Twitter Unwittingly Verifies Fake Disney Account With Only 4,000+ Followers
It looks like Twitter users aren’t the only ones left confused after the platform recently removed its blue verification checkmarks, seeing that the site itself unwitting awarded a gold tick—the symbol for companies and organizations—to an account pretending to be part of the Disney Junior network.
While the fake account was eventually suspended, @DisneyJuniorUK was still able to bask in its new status, with other users confirming that it really had been marked as an “official organization,” when in fact, it was started as a troll account in 2021 and had only 4,700 followers.
One for the Twitter history books pic.twitter.com/Jobqev9BFh
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) April 24, 2023
For a few hours, the account fully assumed the role of pretending to be a Disney-affiliated profile for children, even going so far as to claim that the popular animated series South Park would be coming to Disney+. Unfortunately, it looks like that won’t be happening at all.
At the moment, to gain verification, normal users will have to fork out US$8 a month to subscribe to Twitter Blue, while businesses, such as one the fake @DisneyJuniorUK was acting as will be required to pay US$1,000 a month plus additional fees for subsequent accounts.
If Twitter itself can’t seem to tell the imposters from the real users on the platform, how will ordinary users fare any better? It probably won’t be long before an account fools the site again.
You can show this to your grand kids pic.twitter.com/arLN00S3kl
— DANNYonPC (@DANNYonPC) April 24, 2023
For a few brief hours, it was beautiful @DisneyJuniorUK #TwitterVerification#DisneyJuniorUK pic.twitter.com/gg7E2kVCZn
— Alexander Kramer 🌹☕✊ #Solidarity (@AlexKramerBlogs) April 24, 2023
i think twitter fucked up and gave a verified pissmark to a gimmick account. and for disney, of all corporations. pic.twitter.com/wccxdgu7OB
— jenny_tightpants🪑 (@halomancer1) April 24, 2023
[via Mashable and BBC, cover image via Seemanta Dutta | Dreamstime.com and Imagesrouges | Dreamstime.com]
