Disney found itself in the middle of some serious Twitter drama recently.
You may be well aware of the battles that have been going on with the Twitter platform when it comes to Twitter Blue and that signature blue checkmark. But another change hit Twitter previously regarding “official” business accounts through “Twitter Verified Organizations.” Instead of an “official” label, businesses now get a gold checkmark. Recently, one account that appeared to be related to Disney Junior got a gold checkmark and some drama ensued.
According to Deadline, recently, a Twitter account called @DisneyJuniorUK was suspended. This was supposed to look like it was a Disney Junior-branded Twitter account and it even got a gold checkmark from Twitter. But here’s the problem — the account was totally unaffiliated with Disney. It ultimately got removed from the Twitter service.
So what happened? The account has reportedly been around since June of 2021, but again is a fake account and is not associated with Disney. On Twitter, the gold checkmark is meant to be “reserved for the official and verified accounts of businesses who pay $1,000 per month” (per Deadline), but somehow this account received it and later Tweeted their surprise.
In reply to a question about how they got the checkmark, the account holder indicated it had “just appeared out of nowhere.”
According to Variety, the account used a profile picture and banner with the same Disney Junior logo as the real Disney Junior account — @DisneyJunior (which has a gold checkmark of its own).
The fake account’s bio “merely linked to another account called @7virtues_, which claimed to be managing the @DisneyJuniorUK account.” At one point, that other account (@7virtues_) put up a poll asking whether they should deactivate the Disney Junior UK account.
The account Tweeted some other messages before being shut down. These Tweets included “one using a racial slur and profanity against Twitter CEO Elon Musk and another claiming adult animation South Park was launching on Disney Junior in May.”
Disney’s representatives in the UK reportedly became aware of the fake account on the morning of April 24th and contacted “counterparts at Twitter.” The account was suspended by around 11:30AM British Summer Time (or around 6:30AM ET).
This all follows the blue checkmark drama of recent days when all legacy blue check marks were removed only to later be reinstated for certain users.
We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more news. To learn about the Disney Reedy Creek Improvement District drama, click here.
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