On X (previously Twitter), one of the most used social media platforms in Nigeria, impersonators and identity thieves earn incomes to the tune of thousands of dollars.

A blend of social media users exists on X. According to Statista, Nigeria had an estimated 5.1 million users on the platform as of 2022. Between 2020 and 2023, however, 4.95 million of these users were reachable with advertising. The users reachable with advertising are those active accounts that can see sponsored ads.

The social network recently came up with Creator Ads Revenue Sharing, a programme that incentivises users with checkmarks on a monthly basis. Before CEO Elon Musk, who calls himself ‘Chief Twit’ on X, acquired the platform for $44 billion, checkmarks were free, and users only got it on the basis of their large followings and engagements. But the new management has monetised it.

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Key among the problems this monetisation policy has caused are disinformation and impersonation. Some users have been inspired to qualify for the revenue-sharing programme by creating accounts impersonating global celebrities, politically exposed people and thought leaders.

FIJ has identified a couple of such accounts parodying popular figures and making several hundred dollars from such activities. These accounts impersonate Singer Olamide, Musk, Chandler Bing, UTDTrey, Stephen Curry and many more.

PARODIES

Several verified accounts are parodying the X CEO. They are @ElonMuskAOD, created in April 2021, with 1.3 million followers; @ElonMuskPD, created in February 2011, with 2.3 million followers; and @ElonMuskPDA, which has been on the platform since July 2012, with over 120,000 followers. Although these accounts indicate that they are parodies, they often post as if they were Musk himself.

Patrick Obahiagbon, a Nigerian politician renowned for using ‘big’ English words, is also being impersonated on the platform. A user, @HonObahiagbon, operates a parody account opened less than two years ago. Aside from posting to misrepresent the man, the handler accurately depicted the political journey of Obahiagbon in the account’s bio. In some of his tweets, the handler responded to tweets by Don Jazzy, a musician, and AY, a stage comedian. The responses by these celebrities showed that they had the impression that they were interacting with the Edo-born logophile.

Olamide Adedeji, a pop artist known as Olamide Badoo, is not spared from this impersonation trend. He is being parodied as Olamidé (Parody) (@olamiddeee). This particular account boasts more than 45,000 followers.

FIJ also found @baby_face_goat, an account parodying Chef Stephen, an American professional basketballer. The handler joined X in January 2021 and has over 20,000 followers.

These accounts create content around different topics and mislead undiscerning minds into believing that the content is coming from real figures. With their verification badge and regardless of the correctness of their tweets, they are entitled to some incentives from X subscription revenues each month.

Some eligibility criteria for revenue sharing are that the user must be 18 years of age or older and have at least 500 followers. It suffices to say that these fake accounts have met these criteria to generate income for impersonation.

Impersonation appears to be a new strategy for some X users to grow their followings and benefit from huge tractions to boost their end-of-month earnings. By seeing the pictures of these popular personalities, followers are sometimes misled into believing that they are engaging with the right personalities.

With the company’s monetisation policy in place, parody accounts may have dramatically increased.

X POLICY ON PARODY

Policies regulating parody accounts have been variously reviewed. Before Musk’s time, it was mandated for such accounts to distinguish themselves in both their account name and bio. The sanction that applied to failure to do this ranged from profile moderation, a temporary suspension to a permanent suspension.

Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022

Musk, however, introduced a new twist in 2022. In a policy thread in November of that year, he announced that the company would no longer issue any warning to any impersonating account that did not carry a ‘parody’ label.

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“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended. Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue. Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark,” the policy reads.

Labelling an account ‘parody’ while paying for a blue badge has now legalised impersonation on the platform. It has also given impetus to users to share misinformation that may never get fact-checked to ascertain its veracity. While the company has a policy to report impersonation, it is unclear whether one can report an account properly labelled ‘parody’ as required by the platform.