Sen. Ed Markey hits back at Elon Musk after his response to questions about impersonation

After a Washington Post reporter successfully set up a fake verified account pretending to be the Massachusetts Democrat, Markey shared a letter to Musk on Twitter Friday asking him to “explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”

In response, Musk wrote back to Markey in a tweet Sunday and said, “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?”

Markey did not appear to appreciate Musk’s response.

“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will,” Markey wrote in a tweet Sunday.

Twitter appeared to have paused the $7.99 a month Twitter Blue verification program shortly after the Post ran its test as impersonations of celebrities and brands proliferated across the platform.

But prior to the pause, the Post was able to set up a Twitter handle called “@realEdMarkey” using “a spare iPhone, a credit card and a little creativity.” The account received a blue verified checkmark, even though Markey already has two legitimate verified accounts.

The blue check is supposed to be a feature of the paid Twitter Blue, but the Post reporter found that Twitter said the fake Markey account was verified “because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category.”

Twitter has recently lost key privacy and content moderation executives.

“Safeguards such as Twitter’s blue checkmark once allowed users to be smart, critical consumers of news and information in Twitter’s global town square,” Markey wrote in his letter to Musk. “But your Twitter takeover, rapid and haphazard imposition of platform changes, removal of safeguards against disinformation, and firing of large numbers of Twitter employees have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the Wild West of social media.”

Markey asked Musk to respond to his questions in writing by Nov. 25.

The exchange between Musk and Markey on Twitter is not the first time the pair has gone head-to-head.