In November 2022, the user behind a brand new Twitter account with the handle @cmcdavid97___ appeared to impersonate Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and tweeted that he was being traded to the New York Islanders.
However, this was not true.
"I have officially been traded to the New York Islanders, but i will always be thankful for my time at Edmonton and the support i've gotten throughout the years," the tweet read. "It's onto better and greater things in long island now! #LetsGoOilers #Isles."
The owner of the account looked to have paid for the new Twitter service that provided a checkmark badge, which appeared the same as verification badges had in the past. The symbol made the purported news appear more credible. The bio for @cmcdavid97___ identified the account as publishing "parody."
Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, previously said that he would "permanently suspend any account on the social media platform that impersonates another," according to The Associated Press.
The satirical account was soon suspended, but not before the tweet received thousands of engagements. It's unclear how long the tweet was visible, but it appeared to be available at least one hour.
Earlier the same day, Musk had tweeted, "Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn't."
For further reading, we previously reported about how two other "parody" accounts also paid for a checkmark badge and had all the appearances of impersonating LeBron James and ESPN analyst Adam Schefter.
Source:
Bajak, Frank. "Musk Threatens to Boot Twitter Account Impersonators." The Associated Press, 7 Nov. 2022, https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-impersonators-ban-6c5cc834a38a29a6fb38e4a85441a3a1.