Fake free insulin Tweet leads Eli Lilly to pull advertising from Twitter - WaPo
Justin Sullivan

In the aftermath of the posting of a fake Tweet on a purported "verified" Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) Twitter account on Thursday announcing free insulin, the drug giant has pulled all of its advertising from the social media platform, The Washington Post reported.
The fake Tweet read: "We are excited to announce insulin is now free."
That Tweet came from an account @EliLillyandCo which had the company's corporate logo and was official-looking. It also had a blue checkmark, indicating that Twitter had "verified" the account's authenticity.
Under Elon Musk's stewardship of Twitter, that blue checkmark comes with a price -- just $8.
However, Lilly's (LLY) official Twitter handle is @LillyPad. On Thursday, Lilly (LLY) posted an apology for the fake tweet on its real account.
Damage was done though. Lilly shares closed down ~4.5% on Friday, though they closed up ~1.8% Monday.
The Post reported that on Friday morning, Lilly (LLY) execs mandated a stop to all Twitter ad campaigns, as well as a pause to publishing Tweets for all corporate accounts around the world.
The newspaper also said that Lilly (LLY) had a hard time getting Twitter to delete the fake tweet, likely as a result of Musk's job cuts.
On Nov. 9, social media giant Meta Platforms (META) also said it would initiate layoffs.