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On Nov. 11, 2022, a user behind a Twitter account with the handle @KariLakeAZ (or @KarilakeAZ with a capital i) displayed a verified checkmark and the picture and name of Arizona Republican Kari Lake. The user impersonated Lake and tweeted that she had conceded to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the state's gubernatorial race. The tweet read, It is with heavy heart that I must concede to my opponent, @katiehobbs. We didn't get the outcome we wanted but I promise we'll be back even stronger in next year's gubernatorial election. This was nothing more than a parody impersonation account that had paid $8 to receive a verification badge. The account was later suspended by Twitter. The account displayed a parody label that read, PA RO DEEZ NUTS. The ability to pay to be verified on Twitter was a new offering became available days earlier under the social media platform's new owner, Elon Musk. As of this writing on Friday, Nov. 11, three days after Election Day, The Associated Press had not yet called the race between Lake and Hobbs. For further reading on other verified parody accounts that also had been suspended, we previously published various stories, such as this one that reported on a fake Tesla account that was created to troll Musk, Twitter's new owner.
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