morrissey
Morrissey denied that he was behind verified Twitter account bearing his name. Harvest Records

Despite the existence of a verified account, it turns out Morrissey is not on Twitter after all.

On Wednesday, @itsmorrissey popped up on Twitter purporting to be the personal Twitter account of the former Smiths lead singer, complete with verified status. The account, which was registered in 2009 but did not tweet until this week, now has more than 250,000 followers. But it will likely lose a lot of those soon, since on Friday, Morrissey released a statement to his long running fansite True To You claiming that he was not operating the account.

“I do not know who has opened this recent Twitter account, but please be aware that it is bogus. That's, of course, if you should remotely care,” Morrissey said with trademark indifference.

Fans could be forgiven for genuinely mistake that the account belonged to Morrissey; its first two tweets were written in first person, seemingly from the singer.

Later, though, @itsmorrissey started uncharacteristically hawking merchandise for the singer’s upcoming album “World Peace is None of Your Business,” leading many fans to doubt that @itsmorrissey was genuine.

At this point, it’s unclear whether @itsmorrissey was started by a troll looking to mess with Morrissey’s fans or by a representative from Morrissey’s camp looking to promote “World Peace is None of Your Business.” If the account is a parody, it seems likely Twitter will at least remove its verified status, if not delete the account entirely. If @itsmorrissey is run by the singer’s record label, however, then it will likely continue on promoting Morrissey’s latest products and tours, a Twitter account that never goes out. We may never know.

Read Morrissey’s full statement to True To You here:

16 May 2014

I would like to stress that I do not have either a Twitter or a Facebook account. I gather that a Twitter account has been opened in my name - as 'It's Morrissey' - but it is NOT Morrissey. I do not know who has opened this recent Twitter account, but please be aware that it is bogus. That's, of course, if you should remotely care.

Untwitterably yours,

MORRISSEY

Salt Lake City

15 May 2014.

Twitter