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BROADCASTER AND FORMER politician Ivan Yates has confirmed that an account purporting to be him on X/formerly Twitter is a fake.

The account (@IvanYatesNT) was set up this month and has posted a series of tweets claiming to be the broadcaster.

The fake account also appears at the top of the Google search results when Yates’ name is searched, appearing under the text: “Latest posts from Ivan Yates”.

Yates confirmed to The Journal today that it is a “complete fake” and said he has “no involvement at all” with it.

X/Twitter overhauled its verification process for accounts after it was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022.

Previously, a blue tick badge next to a user’s name verified that the account was who or what it claimed to be.

This was changed under Musk and replaced with a system whereby users can pay for a tick beside their name.

In December 2025, X was fined €120m over its blue tick badge policy, with the European Commission stating that it breached the Digital Services Act.

It said the platform “deceives users” because it is not “meaningfully verifying” who is behind accounts.

“This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” the Commission said.

In response to that decision, X said it had stopped referring to blue tick users as “verified” and now calls them “Premium” users.

The platform has an “optional” ID verification process that users who pay a subscription to X can apply for.

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