Elon Musk Gets Doused After Mocking Ed Markey Over Impersonation on Twitter: ‘You’re Killing It. Literally’
Britta Pedersen-Pool, Getty Images
New Twitter owner Elon Musk took time out of his busy Sunday to get into a squabble with Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) after the lawmaker posted a letter he sent to Twitter regarding their verification process. Musk’s Twitter has allowed users to get a checkmark if they subscribed to the website’s premium service, Twitter Blue.
Markey’s letter followed a November 11 Washington Post report by the paper’s tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler, who signed up for Twitter Blue while impersonating Markey and, separately, comedienne Blaire Erskine to demonstrate the ease one can impersonate someone as long as they’re willing to pay $8. Later that day, users could no longer sign up for Twitter Blue.
“Dear Mr. Musk: Yesterday, a Washington Post 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. It was not,” Markey’s letter, also sent the same day as the Post article, began.
“Apparently, due to Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone could pay $8.00 and impersonate someone on your platform. Selling the truth is dangerous and unacceptable. Twitter must explain how this happened and how it will prevent it from happening again.”
Markey ended the letter by asking for the company to answer further questions about verification and stating, “Allowing an imposter to impersonate a U.S. Senator on Twitter is a serious matter that you need to address promptly.”
Two days later, Musk decided to respond by tweeting: “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?”
He also criticized Markey for wearing a mask in his Twitter account’s profile picture.
Markey responded by listing multiple investigations Musk’s other businesses are facing. “Fix your companies. Or Congress will,” he declared in a quote tweet.
Even after Markey’s pointed response, there were scores of other users ready to criticize Musk for mocking the Massachusetts Senator, who is known for his criticism of major tech corporations and being a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees issues related to much of Musk’s businesses.
One user even went as far as to say that Musk’s response could go down as “one of the worst replies in Twitter history.”
https://twitter.com/GaryLegum/status/1591838840158916609
https://twitter.com/Eve6/status/1591818135962787841
CNN analyst Bakari Sellers and several other media figures and journalists joined to add to the pile-on in Musk’s replies.
https://twitter.com/aaronhuertas/status/1591817607782490114
It wasn’t just other liberals that took issue with Musk’s response. Several other users were perplexed by Musk’s decision to dismiss concerns about changes at Twitter so mockingly.
That doesn’t mean Musk didn’t have his own share of defenders coming after Markey. Several of his supporters jumped in, with some pointing out that Markey wrote the wrong year in the letter. Even Glenn Greenwald also used the opportunity to criticize Markey for attempting to unleash “tyranny” on tech companies.
https://twitter.com/thebradfordfile/status/1591829965091180544
