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Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

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Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#61

Post by sytelus »

ro_bit wrote: post #2

> It’s not worth the risk when patient trust and health are on the line. Ah yes, the patient's trust in the company to rip them off on lifesaving drugs

This has nothing to do with patients. These are pharma companies existing for the sole purpose of maximizing shareholder value by eking out very last drop of profits. They are just bullying Twitter with whatever leverage they have because Twitter is in unfortunate position where it doesn't provide value at the level where they are the one with leverage. These guys would have not dared this move on Google, for example.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#62

Post by partiallypro »

danudey wrote: post #39
scotty79 wrote: post #7

It's super funny that identity verification of authors of things published was basically more than half of the value twitter provided to its users, both readers and writers and the first thing Elon did was to destroy it. Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. It kind of reminds me how a w…

> Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. 1. Create a new Apple account 2. Buy a $10 iTunes gift card 3. Use that to pay for Twitter Blue Would I pay $10 and twenty minutes of my time to knock $20bn off of an insulin profiteer's stock price? Absolutely. Put me down for a recurring subscrip…

You can block gift cards in most payment gateways, I imagine you could do similar with Apple's system.

There also is mixed evidence that Eli Lilly's stock actually went down from the tweet, given it reacted hours after the tweet and never recovered (usually fake news items effecting price will immediately correct back to the previous trading level.)

Several articles I read about it bury this deep in the article, basically alluding to "we'll never actually know why the stock went down." I would imagine their new Alzheimer's drug looming had more to do with it, but idk. It also becomes slightly questionable about if a quant, etc fund would not know the difference between accounts, when you really think about it...it sounds improbable.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#63

Post by JamesianP »

danudey wrote: post #39
scotty79 wrote: post #7

It's super funny that identity verification of authors of things published was basically more than half of the value twitter provided to its users, both readers and writers and the first thing Elon did was to destroy it. Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. It kind of reminds me how a w…

> Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. 1. Create a new Apple account 2. Buy a $10 iTunes gift card 3. Use that to pay for Twitter Blue Would I pay $10 and twenty minutes of my time to knock $20bn off of an insulin profiteer's stock price? Absolutely. Put me down for a recurring subscrip…

Are we now sure that's really what happened?

I'd be too worried about getting charged with wire fraud or something personally.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#64

Post by fragmede »

gruez wrote: post #17
skyyler wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the move to have an established account with a couple thousand followers, then change profile pic and name and then do the $8 verify? I don't use twitter so I'm just assuming how this works.

Wouldn't the username look off? eg. if you set up with an account with something like "@cutecatpics" as the username to get followers, wouldn't it look suspicious even if changed the name to "Eli Lilly"? It will look like Eli Lilly @cutecatpics You can try flipping this (legit looking username to start with), but it'll look suspicious when you're trying to rack up followers Cute cat pics @eli_lilly_official

hilariously the font that Twitter uses has capital-i look the same as lowercase-L, so when @AppIeOfCA tweeted as a verified account, it was really hard to distinguish from the real @AppleOfCA account.

https://twitter.com/appleofca/status/1590898344242868227 till it gets taken down.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#65

Post by Robotbeat »

Are people aware that impersonating a company’s customer is, like, fraud and opens them up to being sued for damages when something like this happens?

There are kind of two things that happened, here. One is a kind of rushed implementation of a questionable feature. The other is a breakdown of social taboo of just violating the law and/or acting in a damaging way.

We all know that spam and bots are rampant on the Internet. But people providing their valid credit card numbers to then impersonate another company for trolling purposes is something that could happen in lots of cases but held in check by people knowing they’d be sued or arrested/fined. Exactly like vandalism.

(And there’s maybe an ethical case to be made for direct action/civil disobedience, but legally that’s not a valid excuse so there’s definitely risk of being sued and/or arrested.)

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#66

Post by partiallypro »

scotty79 wrote: post #7

It's super funny that identity verification of authors of things published was basically more than half of the value twitter provided to its users, both readers and writers and the first thing Elon did was to destroy it. Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. It kind of reminds me how a w…

Unverified accounts provide most of the good content on Twitter, so I think you're wrong there. What should have happened is you do have an $8 (I think $8 is too much, but alas) verification, but you simply make the badge different. Some people say that defeats the purpose, but it doesn't. You then know you are talking to someone with a vested interest, and since credit cards are now linked to the account you can do more high value advertising to those customers. You also get the ability to edit, have slightly less ads, etc. It's such a simple solution. I don't know why Elon is being stubborn about it being the exact same, or why people are totally against the idea of new verification methods.

Getting verified previously with a small account was cumbersome and took ages.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#67

Post by stevenwoo »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #55
mirzap wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patients don't have real choice. Options are either you die or spend hundreds* of dollars on a drug that everywhere else on the planet costs few bucks.

Not true. You can buy generic insulin in the US for a reasonable price, it's the new stuff that lasts longer that is expensive.

I looked it up and a fifty percent savings is pretty good, but that is still a pretty high price for something that has to be taken forever and is twice as expensive as non generic in every other country. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#68

Post by parkingrift »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #11
falcolas wrote: post #8

Aah, yes, the company who lost billions in "value". And yet their stock is already back up 60% of the amount it dropped in a mere 3 days. I have to imagine they're doing this for the continued exposure. There's no such thing as bad press and all that.

> And yet their stock is already back up 60% of the amount it dropped in a mere 3 days. Alternatively phrased as after 3 days, only a mere 40% has been lost. Hits different though.

The stock has recovered 60% of the maybe-Twitter-related losses. The stock lost 5% of its value on November 11th, and recovered 60% of that to date which means the maybe-Twitter-related drop in value is 40% of 5%, or 2%.

However, Friday also saw a broad drop in pharma stocks. If I'm quite generous I'd say 50% of that 2% can be attributed to the Twitter tomfoolery.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#69

Post by oceanplexian »

labrador wrote: post #18

My theory is that when people who lean right are complaining about a "woke agenda" at Twitter they are complaining mostly about trans activism. Since Eli Lilly is trans friendly, I wouldn't be sure that Musk is unhappy they are leaving his platform. Corporate Equality Index: List of Businesses with Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Benefits https://www.thehrcfoundation.org/professional-resources/corp... Elon Mus…

> My theory is that when people who lean right are complaining about a "woke agenda" at Twitter they are complaining mostly about trans activism.

Twitter shouldn't ban people on behalf of a corporation; it has nothing to do with "woke" or not "woke". This is a problem with all media, advertising groups have formed mobs that intimidate organizations like Twitter, and other media outlets that don't give in to their corporate agenda. It might sound great that your agenda and the corporations agenda are aligned at this moment in time, but I assure you they are fair-weather friends. They wouldn't skip a beat stomping all over the LGBTQ+ agenda if it was profitable for them.

A world where groups of corporations control free speech through collective intimidation is literally a dystopian science fiction trope. So IMHO, it doesn't matter where you lean politically, screw Eli Lilly and others like them.

Re: Eli Lilly pulls millions in Twitter advertising after fake account debacle

#70

Post by SoftTalker »

danudey wrote: post #39
scotty79 wrote: post #7

It's super funny that identity verification of authors of things published was basically more than half of the value twitter provided to its users, both readers and writers and the first thing Elon did was to destroy it. Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. It kind of reminds me how a w…

> Just to replace it with what he calls "payment verified", which basically means you have 8$ and means to send it to twitter. Which apparently is worth less than nothing. 1. Create a new Apple account 2. Buy a $10 iTunes gift card 3. Use that to pay for Twitter Blue Would I pay $10 and twenty minutes of my time to knock $20bn off of an insulin profiteer's stock price? Absolutely. Put me down for a recurring subscrip…

And if you shorted Lilly at the same time, you'll probably soon be getting a visit from men in dark suits.
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