Twitter deactivates Elon Musk’s parody account after ‘Lollipop Lagelu’ post goes viral

A verified Twitter account posing as billionaire Elon Musk recently shot to fame after uploading Hindi lyrics of the popular Bhojpuri track ‘Lollipop Lagelu’. However, its stardom was short-lived, and the account was suspended hours after the tweet went viral. The account reportedly belonged to Ian Woolford, a Melbourne-based professor who teaches Hindi at La Trobe University. His Twitter handle, which has now been suspended, was almost identical to Musk’s, from the same profile picture to the same bio. 

The account, which had about 91.9K followers prior to its suspension, gained prominence due to its quirky posts and hilarious Hindi versions of Musk’s tweets. On November 5, the Twitter chief wrote "Trash me all day, but it'll cost $8," which quickly inspired the parody account to write: “Twitter Tere Tukde Honge gang will also have to pay $8”.  

Similar accounts surface after suspension of Musk's parody page

In another tweet, the account used a popular meme to write “This bird is sold. (Ye bik gayi hai chidiya).” The handle also joked about the recent mass layoffs at Twitter by using a dialogue from the 1995 hit ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’. “Small things like this keep happening in big countries. Isn’t it? (Bade bade desho mein aesi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain… hai an?).”

After the suspension of the account, several other verified handles surfaced and followed suit to impersonate Musk. One verified account changed its name to Elon Musk and wrote: "The blue checkmark simply meant your identity was verified. Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you. That no longer applies. Good luck out there!" Another similar account wondered: "There are so many Elons. How do we even know which one is which anymore lol."

However, Woolford’s handle being removed from Twitter is ironic in nature, keeping in mind that the social networking company’s new CEO has encouraged humor and speech on Twitter and has previously self-identified as a ‘free-speech absolutist’. After completing the $44 billion deal of acquiring Twitter, Musk had announced on October 29 that “Comedy is now legal” on the micro-blogging site, although it doesn’t seem so, at least in Woolford’s case.