Democratic Senator Ed Markey (MA) told Elon Musk to “Fix your companies. Or Congress will,” after Musk mocked the senator’s concerns about fake accounts on Twitter getting a blue check .
Markey sent a letter to Musk on Friday criticizing Twitter Blue, the social media company’s new $8/month subscription service that comes with a blue check mark.
Markey’s letter came after a Washington Post reporter was able to create a fake profile, impersonating the senator–with his permission– and got verified within minutes after paying the $8.
Markey said in his letter that the reporter “easily created a fake Twitter account in my name, and by paying $8.00 was also able to obtain Twitter’s blue checkmark, signifying that Twitter had ‘verified’ the account was indeed that of a sitting U.S. senator.”
“Apparently, due to Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone could pay $8.00 and impersonate someone on your platform,” Markey wrote.
“Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” the senator added.
Musk responded to the senator by mocking his very real concerns, telling him his original account “sounds like a parody”.
“Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” Musk wrote. “And why does your [personal profile] have a mask!?”
Markey fired back at Musk, telling him to clean up his companies or Congress will be forced to take action.
“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online,” Markey responded. “Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”
Twitter paused its paid subscription service on Thursday night in an effort to “help address impersonation issues,” The Washington Post reported.
The move came after several verified accounts pop up on the app impersonating celebrities, former presidents and even pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly lost billions after stock plunged on Friday because a fake verified account promised free insulin.
