“Fix your companies”: US Senator warns Elon Musk over fake accounts on Twitter – Times of India

Elon Musk recently introduced a new Blue subscription service that allows any user (in select markets) to get the blue tick denoting a verified account. Following the launch, Twitter saw an exponential rise in fake accounts flaunting the ‘coveted’ Blue tick. Several people admitted that they were able to make fake accounts of people by just paying $7.99.
In one such incident, Ed Markey, the US Senator for Massachusetts, called out Elon Musk and sought an explanation on how a reporter from The Washington Post was able to create a verified account impersonating him and how Twitter is working “to prevent it from happening again.”

In his tweet, Musk joked that perhaps the senator’s “real account sounds like a parody?” and “And why does your pp have a mask!?”
Markey lashed out at the new Twitter boss for the replies and advised him to stop “picking fights online” and fix his companies “Or Congress will.”

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that it is “tracking developments at Twitter” and are “deeply concerned” with the way things are happening at the company. The US regulator also noted that the billionaire is “not above the law”.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern. No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them,” an FTC spokesperson was quoted as saying.
One of the company lawyers, in a message in Twitter’s Slack, had also informed the company employees that Musk is putting the social media platform at risk of “billions of dollars” in fines. “…FTC can (and will!) fine Twitter BILLIONS of dollars pursuant to the FTC Consent Order, extremely detrimental to Twitter’s longevity as a platform,” the lawyer highlighted.

The lawyer also claimed that he/she heard the current head of Legal Alex Spiro say that “Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.’”
The lawyer also noted that Musk’s failure to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter is the reason why the employees are being put under pressure.