Elon Musk’s Twitter inadvertently gave a gold verification badge to a Disney parody account that tweets explicit language and racial slurs.
On Monday morning, the Disney Junior parody account @DisneyJuniorUK boasted a gold verification badge, which means that an account is considered an official business on the social media platform. The account has since been suspended.
Elon Musk (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
The Disney parody account’s pinned tweet read, “#FuckThatN****Elon, #KasherQuon and #MeowskullFeetFreaks,” but the original tweet did not censor the racial slur, according to a report by Variety.
While gold verification badges cost $1,000 per month, Twitter is currently waiving the fee for its largest advertising clients and most-followed brands.
fake disney account on Twitter
Nonetheless, the Disney Junior parody account appeared to be surprised to see its own account verified with a gold badge.
“No fucking way,” the account tweeted.
“This isn’t actually real right. Someone fucking pinch me or something,” the Disney parody added in a follow-up tweet, which featured a screenshot of its own Twitter account, with the gold badge circled.
Additionally, a quick glance at the account’s follower count would indicate that it wasn’t the official Disney Junior account, as it only boasted 1,460 followers. Meanwhile, the official Disney Junior account has 48.7K followers.
After officially taking over Twitter in a $44 billion deal late last year, Elon Musk altered the verification system, making it so that people can pay in order to have a blue checkmark. That decision, however, resulted in bouts of chaos, as some users changed their names and avatars to those of official accounts.
In one example, a Twitter user who paid for a blue checkmark temporarily passed themselves off as the pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly, and tweeted that insulin, which can cost patients hundreds of dollars for just a few weeks’ supply, would be free, Variety reported.
A month later, Musk announced that Twitter would be using gold badges for businesses and grey badges for government accounts.
Last week, Twitter removed all legacy verification for those who do not pay for the social media platform, stripping countless celebrities with millions of followers of their blue checkmarks, causing uproar and confusion.
On Sunday, Musk appeared to reinstate blue checkmarks for specific users who do not pay for Twitter. The Tesla CEO’s method for who gets to have blue verification badges for free remains unclear.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.