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November 14, 2022

Twitter Lays Off More Workers, Forced to Halt "Checkmark" Subscription as Fake Accounts Flood Site
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Twitter put on hold its recently launched $8 "blue checkmark"
subscription service Friday after fake accounts inundated the site.
Among the imposter accounts, a fake Eli Lilly account posted a tweet
announcing they would make insulin free, causing the pharmaceutical
company's stock to take a plunge. Meanwhile, a fake Lockheed Martin
account, @Lockheed Martini, posted it would halt weapons sales to Saudi
Arabia, Israel and the U.S., causing the real Lockheed Martin to lose
its share value. Fake accounts for Tesla were also created.

In related news, Twitter started laying off a large number of its
contract workers on Saturday, including those working on content
moderation. One of Elon Musk's first acts as Twitter's new owner was to
lay off around half the company's permanent staff earlier this month.


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