The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) interim committee chairman Zaka Ashraf‘s verified Twitter account doest not belong to him, the board said on Friday.
“Mr. Zaka Ashraf doesn’t have a Twitter account. The PCB stated that this is a fake account that has been reported.
In June 2023, the account in concern, @IZakaAshraf, was verified.
The impostor, who uses the handle Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf and has more than 8,000 followers, has “Chairman @TheRealPCB” written in his bio along with the hashtag “#ZakaAshraf.”
Mr Zaka Ashraf does not have an account on @Twitter. This is a fake account and has been reported to @verified by the PCB. pic.twitter.com/PbMYm2Chat
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) July 7, 2023
The account has posted 55 tweets since it was founded in February 2021. Since then, it has been removed.
When Twitter launched its paid verification service in November of last year and removed the blue checkmarks from verified accounts, there was an increase in false information.
Impersonators were abusing the blue checkmark, which had adverse effects for brands, businesses, and prominent personalities whose Twitter accounts had been impersonated. As a result, Twitter temporarily suspended its service.
Twitter reactivated Blue checkmarks in December of last year; personal accounts received blue checks, whilst commercial and government accounts received gold and grey checks.
The cost of the service’s monthly membership is around Rs 2,250, or Rs 23,700 per year.
Elon Musk said last year that accounts on Twitter that impersonate someone else without clearly identifying it as a “parody” account will be immediately and permanently terminated.
The most newsworthy stunt was carried out by the fake Eli Lilly account, which had a checkmark next to its name, when it tweeted that its clients would receive free insulin. Before the harm could be repaired, the company’s stock price crashed.
