Wendi Deng - Weng Deng Falls Foul Of Twitter Hoax

The blue tick symbol is used to verify the legitimacy of accounts belonging to well-known individuals, so that "users can trust that a legitimate source is authoring their Tweets." The spoof account appears to have been set up on January 1, 2012 but the mistake was not rectified until Tuesday January 3, 2012. The identity of the person using the account is as yet unclear, though the Tweeter stated "Oh, and I'm not Jonny Marbles either. Really. I'm a nobody. Not an aspiring comedy writer. Not anything," in reference to Jonathan May-Bowles who was sentenced to six weeks in prison after pushing a plate of foam into Rupert Murdoch's face at a House of Commons committee hearing in August 2011.

On January 2, 2012, Bbc News reported that Rupert Murdoch had set up an account on the social media site. There has not been any dispute over the legitimacy of his account.