Update (15 November 2022):
Another screenshot of a tweet purportedly made by Elon Musk is being shared on social media claiming that Elon Musk has tweeted “Kamariya Kare Lapalap, ki lollipop lagelu”, a Bhojpuri song lyric, countering the backlash over his 8 dollars for blue tick verification and mass layoffs decisions after the Twitter takeover. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Elon Musk’s tweet referring to the Bhojpuri song lyric “Kamariya Kare Lapalap, ki lollipop lagelu”.
Fact: This tweet was also made from the same parody Twitter handle of Elon Musk. Ian Woolford, a Melbourne-based Hindi professor, changed his profile name and picture to make it look like the Twitter handle of Elon Musk and published this Hindi tweet posing as a parody account of Elon Musk. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On observing the screenshotted tweet carefully, one could see the username ‘@iawoolford’ in the tweet shown in the photo. When searched for this tweet using these keywords, we found the same tweet in the archived Twitter account of ‘@iawoolford’. Ian Woolford, a Melbourne-based Hindi professor, changed his profile name and picture to make it look like the Twitter handle of Elon Musk and published this Hindi tweet posing as a parody account of Elon Musk. Lately, Ian Woolford’s Twitter handle was suspended for publishing satirical Hindi memes impersonating Elon Musk. Reporting the suspension of this parody account of Elon Musk, several news websites published articles, which can be seen here and here.
Published (08 November 2022):
A screenshot of a tweet purportedly made by Twitter’s sole Director Elon Musk is being shared widely on social media. This purported tweet of Elon Musk states, “Twitter Tere Tukde Honge” gang will also have to pay $8 dollars” (when translated from Hindi). This post claims that Elon Musk tweeted in Hindi and informed that the Tukde gang who wish to break Twitter must also pay $8 dollars. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Elon Musk’s tweet in Hindi stating that ‘Twitter Tere Tukde Honge’ gang should also pay $8.
Fact: The screenshot shared in the post shows a tweet made from a parody account of Elon Musk. Ian Woolford, a Melbourne-based Hindi professor, changed his profile name and picture to make it look like the Twitter handle of Elon Musk and published this Hindi tweet posing as a parody account of Elon Musk. Elon Musk did not publish any such Hindi tweet about charging $8 to the ‘Twitter Tere Tukde gang’. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether Twitter’s sole Director Elon Musk had published any such Hindi tweet referring to the ‘Twitter Tere Tukde Honge’ gang, we could not find any such Hindi tweet on the official Twitter handle of Elon Musk. The username mentioned in the purported tweet is ‘@iawoolford’, whereas the actual username of Elon Musk’s official Twitter handle is ‘@elonmusk’.
When we searched to find this tweet on the Twitter handle with the username ‘@iawoolford’, we found that this Twitter account (@iawoolford) was suspended for violating Twitter rules. On searching for further details, we found that the account was recently suspended for publishing multiple hilarious Hindi lyrics and memes posing as a parody account of Elon Musk. The account belongs to Ian Woolford, a Hindi professor working at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. By changing the profile name and picture to make it look like the Twitter handle of Elon Musk, Ian Woolford published this Hindi tweet posing as a parody account of Elon Musk. Several news websites published articles about this parody account of Elon Musk that published hilarious Hindi lyrics and memes in the name of Elon Musk. They can be seen here and here.
Elon Musk in a tweet on 07 November 2022, said, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended.”.
To sum it up, this tweet in Hindi stating that ‘Twitter Tere Tukde Honge’ gang should also pay $8 is made from a parody account of Elon Musk.
