Twitter verified a fake Cormac McCarthy account
Cormac McCarthy was just verified on Twitter!
No, not the real one, who wrote some of the worlds most famous novels including No Country For Old Men and Blood Meridian. But a person pretending to be Cormac McCarthy — with 48,500 followers and the bio "my publicist insists this is a worthwhile use of my remaining time" — was verified for a brief time on Monday.
Rory Walsh from McCarthy's agency, told Mashable over email that "this is definitely not a genuine Cormac McCarthy account." Mashable reached out to Twitter and hasn't heard back just yet. However, shortly after Mashable reached out, the account lost its verification status.
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The McCarthy parody account, which was remarkably verified on Monday, has tweeted such gold as:
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It isn't the first time a Cormac McCarthy parody account duped Twitter. Back in 2012, in the early days of the platform, Jack welcomed @CormacCMcCarthy — another fake account — to Twitter, saying it was a sign that his platform has "the best authors in the world." That account has sense been suspended.
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This all comes just weeks after Twitter launched a public-facing application for account verification. To be verified, the platform said, an account must be authentic, notable, and active. This parody account, @CormacMcCrthy, is certainly active, and the real Cormac McCarthy is notable, but it is absolutely not authentic.
Currently, it's unclear how the user behind this obviously fake account got Twitter to verify it, or what Twitter will do to fix the mistake. But I look forward to seeing if the mastermind behind this joke can trick Jack a third time.
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
