A verified Twitter account posing as the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly tweeted Thursday afternoon saying, "We are excited to announce that insulin is free now." The account, with the handle @EliLillyandCo, used the Eli Lilly logo and had a verified checkmark.
The tweet generated more than 1,500 retweets and stayed up for several hours before the account was locked by Twitter. Later in the evening, the account was unlocked. The Eli Lilly logo was removed. The checkmark remained on the desktop version of the site, but not on the app.
The real Eli Lilly Twitter account, @LillyPad, tweeted, "We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad."
IndyStar reached out to Eli Lilly for comment. A spokesperson for the company said they "are aware of the fake account and in conversations with Twitter to address the matter."
Another fake Eli Lilly account with verification checkmark and the company's logo appeared later Thursday night.
It is the latest instance of a verified account impersonating a brand on Twitter since the social media company launched its new verification system, which allows users to pay a monthly $8 fee. In the past several days, fake accounts have popped up impersonating President Joe Biden, Pope Francis, Nintendo and others.
Twitter owner Elon Musk laid off 50% of Twitter's employees last week. Other high-profile employees, including Twitter's head of moderation and safety...
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday rejected the claims of Congress MLAs from Tamil Nadu being shifted to a resort in Bengaluru post Assembly elections. He further said that ...