Wendi Deng Twitter Account Fake, Despite Being 'Verified'

A Twitter account in the name of Wendi Deng, the wife of Rupert Murdoch, has been determined to be fake, raising concerns because the social network had verified the account as genuine for a whole day.

News International also confirmed the account as real, before the user confessed to being fake on January 3, just days after creating the account in the name of its CEO's spouse.

"Hello Twitter," the account in the name of Wendi Deng said. "As News International has finally come to their senses, it's time to confirm that yes, this is a fake account. I'm not Wendi."

The Twitter user went on to tell its 10,050 followers: "But you have to wonder why they [News International] were unsure for so long. And you have to wonder even more why Twitter verified this account for a full day. I never received any communication from them about this.

"I was surprised - and even a little alarmed - when I saw the Verified tick appear on the profile. You might ask 'why didn't I tell them?' But surely Twitter should be checking out its verified status more carefully? No?"

The account announced at approximately 14:15pm GMT Tuesday that it wasn't Wendi Deng herself, after making headlines for flirting with comedian Ricky Gervais and talking to Rupert Murdoch's verified account.

The account continued: "It might be only a small matter, but you have to worry about the management of News International and Twitter if they can both readily confirm, for a while at least, that this was the account of a very noted personality."

"I'm sorry if some of you feel misled by this Twitter account, but I never said it was entirely genuine. I never said it was a spoof either... But then it wouldn't really be much fun if every spoof account (of which there are many) said SPOOF all over it."

The fact that this account was verified by San Francisco-based Twitter raises important questions regarding how the social network decides if a celebrity is legitimate, and not a spoof account like @Wendi_Deng turned out to be. International Business Times UK has contacted Twitter about this, but has not received a reply..

"To those of you who kept maintaining the account was fake, even after being verified, good on you for being suspicious.... Above all, this was a bit of fun. If you don't think it was, then you'd better ask Twitter to remove every other spoof account too."

The account finished by saying that "I'm definitely not married to Rupert Murdoch... And yes, to answer some tweets, of course I'm now in fear of Wendi coming to sort me out with a swift kick."

Also mentioned in the confession, "Wendi" said "there was some disgusting racism in some of the tweets sent to 'Wendi'. I never indulged in that. Sickening."

UPDATE: Twitter has spoken to Josh Halliday of the Guardian newspaper, who has reported the social network as saying: "We don't coment on our verification process but can confirm that the @wendi_deng account was mistakenly verified for a short period of time. We apologize for the confusion this caused."