The action was taken in response to a number of accounts impersonating company giants receiving a blue tick, that previously indicated that the platform has verified the user as real.
A Twitter user claimed to be a drugs firm Eli Lilly and said "insulin was free". Twitter did not comment.
The incident added to the concerns about how Musk’s leadership has an impact on the spread of misinformation on the platform.
"We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account," tweeted Eli Lilly, a few hours after the prank post went up on the internet on Thursday, reiterating the name of its real Twitter handle. Consequently, the firm’s shares fell up to 4% on Friday amid the confusion.
Max Burns, a US-based PR strategist says he had seen the fake accounts being impersonated as ‘verified user’ accounts with the verified blue tick badge, that was supposedly purchased via Twitter Blue posing as support accounts for existing airlines and asking users who were trying to contact them on Twitter to direct message the fake accounts instead.
"How long until a prankster takes a real passenger's ticket information and cancels their flight? Or takes their credit card info and goes on a spending spree?" he said. "It will only take one major incident for every airline to bail on Twitter as a source of customer engagement."
Adding to the confusion, these fake verified accounts could put advertisers in major difficulties, who have put their businesses with Twitter on hold. Musk's rocky run atop the platform laying off half its workforce and triggering high-profile departures has raised questions about its survivability.
The imposters could be a major setback, even if the fake accounts are taken down quickly.
They have created overwhelming reputation risk for placing advertising investments on the platform, says Lou Paskalis, longtime marketing, and media executive and former Bank of America head of global media. He adds that with the fake verified brand accounts, a picture emerges of a platform in disarray that no media professional would risk their career by continuing to make advertising investments on, and no governance apparatus or senior executive would condone if they did.
Twitter’s Latest CEO Warned Employees
Last month, Elon Musk made his $44 billion purchase of Twitter and swiftly set about overhauling the company.
Musk has fired roughly 3,700 employees, almost half of the firm’s former staff- and pushed the firm to concentrate on finding ways other than advertising to generate revenue.
His first email to employees warned, "The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed[...]Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn."
