‘Jesus Christ’ gets verified on Twitter thanks to Elon Musk

The aftershocks of Twitter’s acquisition by the world’s richest man Elon Musk are still being felt on the internet after the account of Jesus Christ, the supposed Lord and Savior, was verified by the social media network.

The account, along with the blue verification mark, features a cartoonish profile picture of Jesus Christ pointing his right index finger and raising his left thumb with a wink and a smile.

Jesus on Twitter?

With the username ‘@jesus’, the profile has garnered 824.9k followers and features “Carpenter, Healer, God” as its bio.

“On Twitter, I’m Jesus. In real life, I’m not. I started the Twitter account with the handle “@Jesus” back in 2006. I just thought it would be funny to post tweets around the holidays like Christmas and Easter. It’s satirical. I post things like ‘Don’t call it a comeback’ right after Easter to joke about Jesus rising again,” the user told Business Insider.

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The user said he is not religious, but wanted to bring some joy and laughter to the Twitter universe.

Verification, thanks to Musk

“I’ve been ‘Jesus Christ’ on Twitter for 14 years — and thanks to Elon Musk, I’m now verified.”

The user said while he does share encouraging messages, he has also received death threats.

“I don’t think the account is blasphemy, because it’s pretty obvious to me that I’m not actually impersonating Jesus. I do get messages from people telling me I’m blasphemous and going to hell, and that they’re going to find out who I am and kill me.”

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Twitter verification tools

Twitter launched two new verification tools on Wednesday but “killed” one of them hours later in a messy start to Musk’s campaign to revamp the influential platform following his $44 billion buyout.

The social media platform unveiled its long-awaited Twitter Blue subscription service, which allows users to pay $7.99 per month for a coveted blue tick, as well as a separate grey “official” badge for some high-profile accounts.

Fails

But the new grey label was almost immediately scrapped, overshadowing the launch of Twitter Blue, which is currently only available on the mobile app on iPhones and in the United States.

“I just killed it,” Musk tweeted hours after the new tag was added to government accounts, big companies and major media outlets.

“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” the South African-born billionaire added.

ALSO READ: ‘I bought Twitter to help humanity’, says Musk while passing ads as content