A screenshot of a fake verified Peter Dutton Twitter account (Image: Twitter)

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is among the public figures impersonated on Twitter since the Elon Musk regime controversially opened up the platform’s verification program to anyone who pays.

Yesterday Twitter rolled out changes to its $11.49 Twitter Blue scheme which allowed any paying user to obtain the “blue tick”, a feature that until recently meant that Twitter staff had manually confirmed the identity of the person operating the account. 

There were concerns that changing a sign that a Twitter account’s identity had been confirmed to mean that someone had paid a few dollars would contribute to misinformation and scams, fearing that bad actors would be able to use this confusion to convince Twitter users they were trusted sources.

And that’s exactly what happened.

An account with the handle @PeterDuttton_MP — a variation on his real Twitter handle that added a third T to his last name — was tweeting with the “blue tick”. 

Despite having “parody” in the account’s bio, just one follower — this reporter — and a joining date of November 2022, the account had seemingly fooled some Twitter users who responded as if they were tweeting at the real Dutton.

Dutton was just one of many high-profile figures who had fake verified Twitter accounts set up for them in the past 24 hours. Tweets purporting to be from LeBron James announcing a trade request, Donald Trump criticising Musk, video game character Mario giving the middle finger, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly promising customers free insulin, and fossil fuel giant BP went viral on the platform.

Many of the accounts were suspended or restricted soon after gaining widespread attention. The fake Dutton account has been “temporarily restricted” so users can’t see its tweets unless they click through a warning. The account did not respond to a request for an interview. 

Musk has promised to add “granularity” to the verification program by including details such as identification verification. But the world’s richest man remains characteristically defiant about criticisms of his changes to the platform, tweeting “I love when people complain about Twitter … on Twitter” followed by two rolling-on-the-floor laughing emojis.