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A Facebook fan page for Elon Musk was verified as an official page but then it disappeared.
The page - which openly stated it was a fan page, not actually Musk - had gained 153,000 followers before it was either deleted by Facebook or the page owners.
According to tech publication, The Verge, page transparency data shows the page was set up by people based in Egypt. It was created in 2019 to represent a football player and changed its name six times.
Posts included on the page were photos of Musk and reposts of recent tweets. When the publication discovered it, there were only ten posts on the page.
A screengrab of the page with a blue tick verification Facebook/Screengrab
Any attempt to visit the pages via its URL: https://www.facebook.com/ElonMuskoffici leads you to a dead page that states: ‘This Content Isn’t Available Right Now.’
According to Facebook’s verification rules, the company verifies pages when it has “confirmed that the Page or profile is the authentic presence of the public figure or brand it represents.”
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The verification process includes filling out a form and sharing official identification in the form of a driver’s license, passport, national identification card, tax filing, recent utility bill, or articles of incorporation.
How this page slipped through the net, then, is unclear.
Indy100 has contacted the artist formerly known as Facebook - Meta - to comment on this story.
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