A number of communication issues between users and trolls have resulted from Elon Musk’s unfortunate back-and-forth deployment of Twitter Blue, with false information unintentionally going viral after people quickly spot blue checkmarks and assume what they are reading is from a reliable source.
Even though much of the conversation has been in good fun, one organization is already feeling the very serious effects of false information spreading like wildfire.
After a fake account purporting to be the pharmaceutical business said that insulin will now be free in the United States, Eli Lilly & Company’s stock crashed on Thursday.
By Friday afternoon, Eli Lilly had lost 20 points and over 4% of its value in the previous day’s trade.
The account, which used the handle @EliLillyandCo, had the same username and profile photo as the official Eli Lilly and Co account which uses the handle @LillyPad.
Both had blue checkmarks, but the fake account’s appeared to be authentic to quick site visitors because it had bought its emblem after joining Twitter Blue.
Late on Thursday, Eli Lilly issued a statement via its official account expressing regret for the error.
The pharma company’s bogus branding was just one of many in the previous 24 hours, with troll accounts pretending to be businesses from other industries and causing chaos on the website.
Currently, the phony account has been suspended.
