A verified Twitter account being run under the name of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) interim committee chairman Zaka Ashraf is an imposter, it emerged on Friday after the board said the account had been reported.

“Mr Zaka Asharaf does not have an account on Twitter. This is a fake account and has been reported,” the PCB tweeted.

The account in question, @IZakaAshraf, was verified in June 2023. The impersonator, who has more than 8,000 followers on his account, goes by Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf, and has “Chairman @TheRealPCB” written in the bio, with an accompanying hashtag “#ZakaAshraf.

There were 55 tweets from the account since it was created in February 2021. It has since been deleted.

Twitter’s rollout of its paid verification service in November last year, coupled with the removal of blue ticks from verified accounts, had led to a surge in misinformation. Impersonators were exploiting the blue checkmark, resulting in negative consequences for brands, companies, and public figures who have had their Twitter accounts impersonated. It led to Twitter momentarily pausing the service.

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Twitter re-enabled Twitter Blue sign-ups in December last year, with accounts for individuals getting a blue check, while gold and grey check marks will denote business and government accounts. The monthly subscription price for the service is costs about Rs 2,250 a month or Rs23,700 for a year.

Elon Musk stated last year that Twitter users engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a “parody” account would be permanently suspended without a warning.

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The most headline-grabbing stuff was pulled off by the imposter account of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly — with a check mark — when it tweeted that it would provide free insulin to the customers. The company’s stocks plummeted before the damage could be salvaged.

Tweets

The @IZakaAshraf account announced on Friday that ex-cricketer Mohammad Hafeez was offered the role of chief selector of the cricket team.

A similar “announcement” where Imran Farhat was appointed as the batting coach was also made by the handle on June 20, 2023.

“I have appointed Shahid Aslam as manager of Pakistan Shaheens. He will travel to Sri Lanka with the Pakistan team for the emerging Asia Cup; Mohammad Haris Will Lead the Side as Captain,” the impersonator stated in a fake tweet.

The impersonator blurred the lines between what was factual and fake news by reacting to any public announcement regarding the interim committee chairman. |

A video tweeted at 7:50pm on June 21, 2023, by the account showed a live press conference where the purported official admitted that he was against the hybrid model proposed by Najam Sethi.

The person running the account also appeared to have a distaste towards the England side, a sentiment seemingly spread across the country after the English side white-washed Pakistan in their home series.

The account tweeted at 1:00pm on July 3, 2023, in reference to the infamous Johnny Bairstow incident at the Ashes 2023, saying that “the man won the world cup with overthrow runs. Have the audacity to talk about the spirit of cricket England’s cricket team is the worse cheater ever In (sic) the history of cricket after India.”

Header image: A screenshot of the imposter Twitter account being run under the name of the PCB interim committee chairman Zaka Ashraf.

Additional reporting by Imran Siddique.