Los Angeles Lakers legend LeBron James does not want to be traded back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite what a phony Twitter account claimed on Wednesday. (Image: USA Today Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInstead of awarding blue check marks to public figures who verify their identity to the platform \u2013 the marks\u2019 original and only purpose \u2013 Musk now offers them to anyone for $7.99 per month. That\u2019s the price of his new Twitter Blue subscription plan, which requires no vetting of any kind. It’s part of a strategy Musk devised to stop his platform from losing what he claims is $4M per day.<\/p>\n
But as soon as Twitter Blue rolled out on Wednesday, the trolls rolled in. An account named @KINGjamez announced: \u201cI am officially requesting a trade. Thank you #LakersNation for all the support through the years. Onto bigger and better things! #Thekid fromAKRON #ImComingHome.\u201d<\/p>\nA tweet from a blue-check verified account claiming to represent LeBron James was fraudulent. (Image: TMZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe real LeBron James\u2019 Twitter handle is @kingjames, with an \u201cs.\u201d However, the blue check mark caused thousands of freaked-out sports fans to overlook the misspelling. The tweet remained online for 30 minutes and generated thousands of engagements, according to Snopes.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Bird is NOT the Word<\/h2>\n In other fake Twitter news, an account purporting to belong to Aroldis Chapman tweeted \u2013 in English and Spanish \u2013 that the relief pitcher had re-signed with the New York Yankees for three years. (Except that, last month, the team dropped him from the roster for skipping a mandatory workout.)<\/p>\n
An account purporting to belong to two-time NHL MVP Connor McDavid tweeted that he was being traded from the Edmonton Oilers \u2013 where he is so revered he was named captain in 2016 \u2013 to the New York Islanders.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd an account purporting to belong to ESPN sports analyst Adam Schefter tweeted that Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels was fired. (This claim was more believable, considering the Raiders\u2019 2-6 record in McDaniels\u2019 first year in charge.)<\/p>\n
Fake News<\/h2>\n All these tweets also came from fake accounts, which also featured blue check marks. As per Musk\u2019s promise to permanently suspend any account impersonating another account, they were all banished from the platform. However, this only occurred after they were seen, liked, and shared thousands of times. Their damage to the platform\u2019s reputation had already been done.<\/p>\n
Earlier Wednesday, Musk tweeted: “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”<\/p>\n
Maybe reportedly firing half of Twitter’s 7,500 full-time employees last Friday was not one of the things that worked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A verified Twitter account pretending to represent Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James requested a trade back to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier today. That sparked a Twitter frenzy among sports fans. It was the result of a deeply questionable new policy rolled out today by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk. Instead of awarding blue check […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":174918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83079,82961,82962],"tags":[83631,83629,83633,83630,83632,83116,81254,83634,83628,82713],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
LeBron James Trade and Other Fake Sports Tweets Wreak Twitter Havoc - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n