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Is Twitter retaliating against verified users for supporting Elon Musk?
Is Twitter retaliating against verified users for supporting Elon Musk? It seems like it in the case of Andrea Stroppa, a former contributor to the World Economic Forum, and cyber security researcher focusing on digital communication, and social media.
Andreas’s research includes topics such as digital propaganda, bots, and counterfeiting. He’s been mentioned in academic papers, media outlets, and think tanks. Andrea told me that the U.S. Government cited his work on digital counterfeiting in a report for the President of the U.S.
Andrea has been very outspoken about Twitter’s bot problems and he’s backed his claims up with hours of research shared in detailed threads. Elon Musk followed him earlier this year after interacting with some of those threads.
To be clear, Andrea changed his Twitter name to avoid messages from verified bots that sent him malicious links and signed "Twitter support". So in fact, he was pushed to take action in an attempt to protect himself.
— Eva Fo𝕏 🦊 Claudius Nero's Legion (@EvaFoxU) August 23, 2022
My friend and fellow journalist, Eva Fox, (Tesmanian) first pointed out the observation. She tweeted that Andrea lost his blue checkmark because he changed his Twitter name to avoid messages from verified bots sending out malicious links signed with “Twitter support.”
Eva pointed out to me that this isn’t just wrong, but it’s a policy that encourages the proliferation of bot/spam accounts. The real question is how do these scam bots get verified without losing their verification status when changing their names? @Nfkmobile posed that question and noted that it does look like an inside job.
Andrea has been keeping up with the Twitter and scam bots and I’ve written about a few of those threads in the articles below.
- Opinion: Fmr President Trump was wrong to call Elon Musk “another bullshit artist”
- This included Andrea’s thread documenting the bots that amplified Insider’s article about Elon Musk’s personal life which led to the harassment of a person close to him.
- Scammers use Elon Musk’s face to advertise on Facebook and Instagram
- Although Andrea’s thread covers another social media platform, it’s an example of his work documenting the bot activities across social media networks.
- Elon Musk raises awareness of Twitter’s lack of transparency on ad audits
- In this article, Andrea’s thread highlighted the questions that Elon Musk thinks that Twitter is doing all it can do to avoid answering.
How Andrea lost his Twitter verification status.
Andrea shared the full story with me on how he lost his Twitter verification status. He has been constantly bombarded by verified accounts sending him fake logins to compromise his account. Thinking that his user name was on some list of malicious actors, he decided to protect his account by changing it.
The verified account harassing him, Andrea told me, was the former head of communication at Zoom, who told Teslarati in a statement that they were working with Twitter to recover their account.
Andrea wasn’t aware that if you changed your user name, you lose your verification.
Although the verified account is allowed by Twitter to continue its phishing, Andrea was punished for protecting his account. Still, he opened a ticket and Twitter sent him a general link about verification. So he re-applied and two days later, was denied because he didn’t “their notoriety requirements.”
Andrea told me that he’s often flooded with spam and insults from trolls and bots. In a statement to Teslarati, he said:
“Companies like Twitter have colossal power and so a considerable responsibility. It’s worrying if Twitter starts retaliating against users because it breaks the trust between users and the company. I’m not against Twitter. I love Twitter.”
“In fact, I think that Twitter deserves better and most of the employees are great people, but I’m worried that some leadership members are betraying the little blue bird. In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri considered one of the worst sins the betray.”
“I worked on these topics, bots, and digital propaganda, for years and I have a good relationship with many reporters. With some of them, I said: you’re all underestimating Elon’s questions. These questions he posed are fundamental, and sooner or later, the truth will come up. And it’s coming.”
Twitter, Elon Musk, Bots, shadow banning & more.
In many cases, Twitter has been known to randomly shadow ban and even suspend accounts that have interacted with Elon Musk. It happened to me. My account was suspended in 2020 after Elon replied to me about shipping ventilators to Louisiana during Covid-19.
It was a horrible feeling losing my account. After several months, I got it back, and was verified less than a year later. However, I’ve seen other friends who were verified lose their status. And have seen friends lose their accounts for absolutely no reason at all. Even Teslarati was shadow banned until Elon Musk questioned why with one single emoji.
🤔
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2022
And now, Andrea took measures to protect his account from verified crypto scam bots that Twitter allows to freely change their names and loses his status. Andrea’s threads are highly visible and with Elon Musk following him, it sure does look suspicious that Twitter will allow these crypto scam bots to continue while actively refusing to give Andrea his verification status back.
In the tweet below, Gail Alfar found that a Fox News account based in North Carolina was also promoting crypto scams in response to one of Elon Musk’s tweets.
@elonmusk @FOX4 it looks like this bot account @alliyahsimsTV was once yours. A news account that was hacked into. pic.twitter.com/UlfLhcR34M
— Gail Alfar (@GailAlfarATX) August 23, 2022
The fact that Andrea has been documenting the bots with his threads has not gone unnoticed. And now that he was a target of the very bots and scam accounts that he was documenting, he took steps to protect his account and lost his verification. Twitter’s refusal to verify Andrea while allowing these bots and crypto scam accounts to continue has me wondering if Twitter is actually retaliating against verified users for supporting Elon Musk.
It sounds extreme, but in Andrea’s case, one has to wonder. Although I am not personally accusing them of such, Twitter’s actions make it look really, really bad. One way the network can prove itself is by restoring Andrea’s verification. Another way is to actually suspend these verified bot and crypto accounts. Even Elon Musk has called Twitter out on them.
Ahem @twitter pic.twitter.com/LCDpOeIei5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2022
Note: Johnna is a Tesla shareholder and supports its mission.
Your feedback is important. If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
News
Tesla states Giga Berlin workforce is stable, rejects media report
As per the electric vehicle maker, production and employment levels at the facility remain stable.
Tesla Germany has denied recent reports alleging that it has significantly reduced staffing at Gigafactory Berlin. As per the electric vehicle maker, production and employment levels at the facility remain stable.
Tesla denies Giga Berlin job cuts report
On Wednesday, German publication Handelsblatt reported that Tesla’s workforce in Gigafactory Berlin had been reduced by about 1,700 since 2024, a 14% drop. The publication cited internal documents as its source for its report.
In a statement to Reuters, Tesla Germany stated that there has been no significant reduction in permanent staff at its Gigafactory in Grünheide compared with 2024, and that there are no plans to curb production or cut jobs at the facility.
“Compared to 2024, there has been no significant reduction in the number of permanent staff. Nor are there any such plans. Compared to 2024, there has been no significant reduction in the number of permanent staff. Nor are there any such plans,” Tesla noted in an emailed statement.
Tesla Germany also noted that it’s “completely normal” for a facility like Giga Berlin to see fluctuations in its headcount.
A likely explanation
There might be a pretty good reason why Giga Berlin reduced its headcount in 2024. As highlighted by industry watcher Alex Voigt, in April of that year, Elon Musk reduced Tesla’s global workforce by more than 10% as part of an effort to lower costs and improve productivity. At the time, several notable executives departed the company, and the Supercharger team was culled.
As with Tesla’s other factories worldwide, Giga Berlin adjusted staffing during that period as well. This could suggest that a substantial number of the 1,700 employees reported by Handelsblatt were likely part of the workers who were let go by Elon Musk during Tesla’s last major workforce reduction.
In contrast to claims of contraction, Tesla has repeatedly signaled plans to expand production capacity in Germany. Giga Berlin factory manager André Thierig has stated on several occasions that the site is expected to increase output in 2026, reinforcing the idea that the facility’s long-term trajectory remains growth-oriented.
Elon Musk got a brash response from Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that the Tesla frontman’s criticism of the airline not equipping Starlink has increased bookings for the next few months.
The two have had a continuing feud over the past several weeks after Musk criticized the airline for not using Starlink for its flights, which would enable fast, free, and reliable Wi-Fi on its aircraft.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk trolls budget airline after it refuses Starlink on its planes
Musk said earlier this week that he was entertaining the idea of purchasing Ryanair and putting someone named Ryan in charge, which would oust O’Leary from his position.
However, the barbs continued today, as O’Leary held a press conference, aiming to dispel any beliefs about Starlink and its use case for Ryanair flights, which are typically short in length.
O’Leary said in the press conference today:
“The Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers would happily pay for wifi access. Our experience tells us less than 10% would pay; He (Elon) called me a retar*ed twat. He would have to join the back of a very, very long queue of people that already think I’m a retar*ed twat, including my four teenage children.”
He then went on to say that, due to Musk’s publicity, bookings for Ryanair flights have increased over the past few days, up 2 to 3 percent:
“But we do want to thank him for the wonderful boost in publicity. Our bookings are up 2-3% in the last few days. So thank you to Mr. Musk, but he’s wrong on the fuel drag. Non-European citizens cannot own a majority of European airlines, but if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we think it would be a very good investment.”
O’Leary didn’t end there, as he called Musk’s social media platform X a “cesspit,” and said he has no concern over becoming a member of it. However, Ryanair has been very active on X for several years, gaining notoriety for being comical and lighthearted.
🚨 Ryanair CEO’s comments on X and Starlink today at the planned presser.
Strange comments here, it just feels like it’s time to end all this crap https://t.co/NYeG95bM82
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 21, 2026
The public spat between the two has definitely benefited Ryanair, and many are calling for it to end, especially those who support Musk, as they see it as a distraction.
Nevertheless, it is likely going to end with no real movement either way, and is more than likely just a bit of hilarity between the two parties that will end in the coming days.
News
Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlines expectations for Cybercab production
“…initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve. The speed of production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are. For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlined expectations for Cybercab production as the vehicle is officially set to start rolling off manufacturing lines at the company’s Giga Texas factory in less than 100 days.
Cybercab is specifically designed and catered to Tesla’s self-driving platform and Robotaxi ride-hailing service. The company has been pushing hard to meet its self-set expectations for rolling out an effective self-driving suite, and with the Cybercab coming in under 100 days, it now needs to push for Unsupervised Self-Driving in the same time frame.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms Robotaxi is set to go unsupervised
This is especially pertinent because the Cybercab is expected to be built without a steering wheel or pedals, and although some executives have said they would build the car with those things if it were necessary.
However, Musk has maintained that the Cybercab will not have either of those things: it will have two seats and a screen, and that’s it.
With production scheduled for less than 100 days, Musk broke down what people should expect from the initial manufacturing phases, being cautiously optimistic about what the early stages will likely entail:
“…initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve. The speed of production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are. For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast.”
Musk knows better than most about the challenges of ramping up production of vehicles. With the Model 3, Musk routinely refers to it as “production hell.” The Cybertruck, because of its polarizing design and stainless steel exterior, also presented challenges to Tesla.
With the important caveat that initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve.
The speed of the production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are.
For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 20, 2026
The Cybercab definitely presents an easier production process for Tesla, and the company plans to build millions of units per year.
Musk said back in October 2024:
“We’re aiming for at least 2 million units a year of Cybercab. That will be in more than one factory, but I think it’s at least 2 million units a year, maybe 4 million ultimately.”
When April comes, we will find out exactly how things will move forward with Cybercab production.
Tesla states Giga Berlin workforce is stable, rejects media report
Elon Musk gets brash response from Ryanair CEO, who thanks him for booking increase
