Elon Musk’s new $8 blue checkmarks cause chaos on Twitter as pranksters

Elon Musk‘s efforts to authenticate Twitter users led to a nervous moment for Los Angeles Lakers fans, who thought they were losing franchise cornerstone LeBron James.

‘Thank you #LakersNation for all the support through the year,’ read a tweet from an account with the handle, @KingJamez. ‘Onto bigger and better things! #ThekidfromAKRON #ImComingHome.’

No, James isn’t being dealt back to Cleveland for a third stint with the Cavaliers, but was instead being impersonated by a Twitter prankster. James’ account uses a slightly different handle: @KingJames.

The confusion was understanding, considering that the bogus James account was adorned with a blue check – Twitter’s traditional way of showing that an account user’s identity has been verified. 

However, Musk has promised a change to that system following his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform. The checkmarks will be available at a yet-to-be-announced date for anyone willing to pay a $7.99-a-month subscription, which will also include some bonus features, such as fewer ads and the ability to have tweets given greater visibility than those coming from non-subscribers.

Experts have expressed concern that making the checkmark available to anyone for a fee could lead to impersonations and the spreading of misinformation and scams.

A tweet, seemingly from LeBron James, turned out to be completely bogus despite Twitter’s renewed efforts to improve its verification system 

Elon Musk’s efforts to authenticate Twitter users led to a nervous moment for Los Angeles Lakers fans, who thought they were losing franchise cornerstone LeBron James

Those fears proved prescient for Lakers fans, who were coaxed into thinking that James was forcing his way out of Los Angeles. And given the team’s 2-8 start, such a demand would be understandable for a title-focused player approaching 40.

Twitter has already banned the @KingJamez handle following Musk’s directive to suspend any user pretending to be someone else without clearly identifying as a parody account.

Similarly, another user parodying ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter was suspended despite being clearly labeled: @AdamSchefterNOT.

‘Josh McDaniels is out as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, sources tell ESPN,’ read a tweet from the @AdamSchefterNOT account.

There are about 423,000 verified accounts under the outgoing system. Many of those belong to celebrities, businesses and politicians, as well as media outlets.

But a large chunk of verified accounts belong to individual journalists, some with tiny followings at local newspapers and news sites around the world. The idea was to verify reporters so their identities couldn’t be used to push false information on Twitter.

Another user parodying ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter was suspended despite being clearly labeled: @AdamSchefterNOT

Musk sought to reassure big companies that advertise on Twitter on Wednesday that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform…