Fake Wendi Deng and Murdoch gaffes embarrass Twitter
Twitter is looking a little red in the face after a number of snafus over the Murdochs' accounts.
Twitter has apologised after a fake verified account of Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng appeared on the micro-blogging site.
The account was created just after the official Rupert Murdoch profile appeared online and erroneously gained the blue tick to confirm it was Wendi Deng.
Yet it emerged shortly after that it was not the real Deng and the profile owner subsequently admitted it was fake.
You have to wonder even more why Twitter verified this account for a full day. I never received any communication from them about this.
"Hello Twitter. As News International has finally come to their senses, it's time to confirm that yes, this is a fake account. I'm not Wendi," the anonymous Deng poser said on the social networking site.
"And you have to wonder even more why Twitter verified this account for a full day. I never received any communication from them about this."
Twitter apologised for the mistake after the gaffe became public knowledge.
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.
"We don't comment on our verification process but can confirm that the @wendi_deng account was mistakenly verified for a short period of time. We apologise for the confusion this caused," a spokesperson said.
Commentators have continued to cast aspersions on the Twitter processes surrounding verification of accounts, however.
It appears another error has emerged from the saga too. When Rupert Murdoch signed up to the service this week, he deleted one of his tweets, which read: "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country."
Even though Murdoch removed the comment from his Twitter profile, the message could still be read via its permalink, according to AllTwitter.
Official policy is to delete tweets completely from the web so they can't be viewed by the public.
Twitter had not responded to a request for comment on the latter point at the time of publication.
Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.
He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.
"Our goal is to transform partner success": Cisco just announced a major overhaul of its partner program – here’s what you need to know
Dropbox layoffs continue as firm cuts another 20% of staff
Forget the metaverse, AI is the money-spinner at Meta — Reality Labs lost $4.4 billion this quarter, but Mark Zuckerberg’s razor sharp AI focus is delivering results