Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company have apologized after customers in the USA got misinformation from a parody Twitter account.
An account with Eli Lilly’s name and logo announced that insulin is now available for free.
The fake account was adorned with a blue Twitter verification checkmark.
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Before it vanished, the tweet received thousands of likes and retweets from the diabetes community.
Twitter has been swamped with parody, or fake, accounts since Elon Musk took over the helm at Twitter.
Twitter now allows subscribers to pay $8 for access to the verification checkmark. However, parody accounts are enabling the spread of misinformation.
“We apologise to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account,” Eli Lilly said in a tweet from its official account, which now has a “official” checkmark alongside the blue verified checkmark.
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The pharma giant also directed people looking for lower-cost insulin to its programme, which provides the drug for $35 per month to American citizens.
Twitter has been making updates to its platform in an attempt to reduce fake accounts yet they continue to start up and spread misinformation.
