In a piece of news that will shock nobody who thinks about things for longer than half a second, it seems Elon Musk’s attempts to reshape Twitter in his image have gone a little too well, with the website fast becoming just as much an embarrassment as he is. The most recent gaffe made by the social media giant, which has been under Musk’s stewardship (in the loosest sense of the term) for a few months now, saw a parody Disney Junior account given a gold checkmark — before the very same account went on to post a bunch of racial slurs and other offensive language. Just your average day on the new, “improved” Twitter, then.
Although the account @DisneyJuniorUK has finally been suspended, the issue is far from being swept under the rug. Variety reported that a source confirmed Disney was aware of the account since late last night U.S. time, and had reached out to Twitter to ask them to resolve the issue. If that’s the case, it took hours for the checkmark to be removed, which isn’t a good sign if you work at Twitter and are trying to be taken seriously.
While the account was still live and verified, it had a pinned tweet stating: “#FuckThatN****Elon, #KasherQuon and #MeowskullFeetFreaks.” The original tweet did not censor the n-word.
Taking a look at the account’s follower numbers and content, it was fairly obvious that it was a joke, with one of its tweets mentioning that famously profane shows South Park and Family Guy would soon be available on Disney Junior. This makes its accreditation even more of a gaffe from the new Twitter team in a week that has already seen Musk having to embarrassingly back down over making certain celebrities pay for a blue checkmark — and his latest SpaceX launch not exactly going to plan. Sometimes, it seems the universe does have a great sense of humor.
Another hilarious part of this tale is that the real Disney Junior U.K. ceased to exist almost three years ago, alongside its social media presence — something that 10 seconds of research would have unearthed. It seems they’re not hiring the best and brightest at Twitter, recently. When you also take into account that the gold verification badges cost $1,000 per month, yet this parody received one for free, it really goes to show just how inept Musk’s new system is. Like many wealthy folks, he seems to have insulated himself with yes-men, allowing his already huge ego to further expand even as all the evidence points to him being completely out of his depth. But at least we’re getting a laugh out of it, even though it will certainly lead to a massive rise in dangerous disinformation.
Even the owner of the parody Disney Junior account was shocked at their golden checkmark!
The only real saving grace for whoever is in charge of verification on Twitter (which, at this point, may be Musk himself, considering how much of a thin-skinned control freak he is) is that the account at least used the official logo for the Disney Junior profile page. That real account (based in the U.S. and still active, unlike the U.K. account) has tens of thousands of followers, and a button linking to the main Disney Twitter account. It also has a gold checkmark, but at least that one is correctly assigned.
Musk has come under a lot of fire since abolishing the previous verification system. Previously, verification was awarded via an opaque process that nobody outside of the company could really define, which many felt meant it was open to abuse. Part of Musk’s reasoning for his change was his self-positioning as a warrior for “free speech,” unless, of course, that speech is being mean about the fact Musk is a nepo baby of the highest order — or is just generally something he doesn’t like. Musk has claimed that the $8 fee for a checkmark is more egalitarian, but so far, most users aren’t really agreeing with his assessment, and neither is the evidence.
Despite thousands pointing out the error in Musk’s plans, he went through with them last winter, and the site quickly descended into a real Wild West. Pranksters even managed to wipe billions off of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s stock price by impersonating the company online and pretending the business would be giving out insulin for free (something we’re not exactly against, or that sad about, to be honest). Other newsworthy impersonations included a fake Chiquita bananas account, which tweeted about the brutal civil wars the banana company funded and encouraged in Central America, and a Tesla parody account that made fun of Musk’s electric self-driving cars for being unsafe and often being recalled. We’re sure advertisers, Twitter’s real main source of income, are delighted at all of this.
Of course, the more conspiracy-minded might see this as an attempt by Musk to cause damage to Disney, who is currently in a heated battle with Ron DeSantis. While Musk claims to be a centrist, he consistently posts right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories, and given how unhinged his already strange behavior has become, it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise that he’s decided Disney is an enemy. It’s also telling that this is an election year, and he seems more than happy to let Twitter become more of a den of misinformation than it already was.
That last point is just pure speculation, though. It’s likely that this issue, like most of Twitter’s recent problems, is down to sheer incompetence at a leadership level — so Musk’s fault in a sense, but a much less ominous one. All in all, it’s been a bad week for the South African emerald heir, to say the least, and this Disney Junior nonsense is the moldy icing on a stale cake. Long may it continue.