Homophobes mocked with fake verified accounts as Twitter descended into chaos

Billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having fun as the credibility of his latest purchase – the social media platform Twitter – was put in question as the site was overrun by fake accounts pretending to be politicians, corporations, influencers, and celebrities.

And LGBTQ people joined in the fun.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44 billion in a deal that was finalized on October 27. He made himself CEO of Twitter and fired its board of directors, a move that was followed by layoffs for about half of Twitter’s employees.

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One of his first new policies as CEO was making Twitter verification pay-for-play. Under the previous verification system, celebrities, politicians, corporations, and other notable people who are likely to be impersonated on the platform could get a blue checkmark next to their name if they were confirmed to be who they said they were. The system made it so that people like Taylor Swift and President Joe Biden could use the platform and readers would know that it’s really them.

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Musk revamped the system and called it “Twitter Blue,” a system where anyone can buy a blue checkmark for $8 a month. Trolls looking to have fun could change their name to a celebrity or a major brand and get a blue checkmark next to their name and pretend to be a famous person.

The downside is that Twitter users didn’t know if someone posting as, for example, Lil Nas X, really was Lil Nas X unless they already knew his official handle.

Or, as someone impersonating former President George W. Bush explained, “Y’all are missing the point about the $8. It’s a small price to make this app completely unusable.”

“Is what I would say if I was someone other than the greatest President America has ever known.”

Several people have gone after anti-LGBTQ celebrities, getting blue checks to pretend to be the celebrity in question and making them say things they didn’t actually say.

“Trans women are women. No longer team terf y’all,” a fake Dave Chappelle said. The real Dave Chappelle declared himself as a “TERF” and made extreme anti-transgender and anti-gay statements last year.

“Matt Walsh won’t stop calling me and talking about genitalia,” a fake anti-LGBTQ Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro said about anti-LGBTQ activist Matt Walsh.

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A fake Elon Musk offered a new plan that gives vacations and dinners with himself, “if your name is Grimes.” The queer Canadian musician Grimes left her relationship with Musk last year and dated out transgender activist Chelsea Manning afterwards.

“Please come back. I love you,” the fake Musk wrote.

A fake Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) – known for his anti-LGBTQ policies, including the infamous Don’t Say Gay law and a ban on transgender kids getting gender-affirming health care  – made a profile with a Nazi flag and someone doing the Nazi salute in front of a “DeSantis Country” flag.

“Top accomplishments: 82,541 Floridians dead from COVID, unaffordable housing, collapsing property insurance market,” the fake DeSantis’ profile read.

“I will eat your son,” a fake anti-LGBTQ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote. “I will eat your infant daughter.”

Twitter suspended those accounts, but not before many of them had viral tweets that caused confusion and forced the real people who were impersonated to issue statements explaining that they were the target of trolls.

One of the most notable targets was Nintendo, the video game company. An unknown user bought the handle @nlntendoofus and the name “Nintendo of America” and posted a picture of Mario flipping people off and other inappropriate content. People who didn’t know that this wasn’t the real Nintendo complained to the Nintendo corporation. The troll got thousands of likes – and an unknown number of people viewed their tweets, complete with the verification checkmark – before their account was suspended.

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Every single advertiser is about to drop Twitter in the next 48 hours. Person creates fake Nintendo Twitter account, pays $8, gets verified immediately and within 2 hours, all their sh**posts go viral. Real Nintendo account gets spammed with complaints. pic.twitter.com/7CZcwYJDsd

— Matt (@themattprov) November 9, 2022

Other tweets attacking corporations and advocacy groups also went viral before they could be suspended.

Great work today guys pic.twitter.com/Q15Hkkf7KB

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) November 11, 2022

Musk himself appeared to be enjoying the fact that he could make $8 off of the fake accounts, using a smiley emoji and a money bag emoji to respond to someone discussing the fake Nintendo tweets. He responded with a laughing emoji to someone else.

I want to be at Nintendo's board meeting, a company that cares deeply about brand safety and its reputation for family values, as they're shown this tweet of the owner of the company currently not protecting their brand gloating that he's getting paid for it. pic.twitter.com/mz2vz8QqNk

— Laura Shortridge-Scott