‘You Must Remove the 🇺🇦 From Your Profile’ Twitter Pop-Up

On February 25 2023, Twitter user @walter_report shared a screenshot of a Twitter pop-up warning, which purportedly demanded that the account “remove the 🇺🇦  [Ukrainian flag emoji]” from their profile:

You can’t be serious, @elonmusk?

Now you’re censoring the 🇺🇦?

Has anyone else gotten this popup yet or is it only us? pic.twitter.com/rY9r97BXc3

— Walter Report 🇺🇦 (@walter_report) February 25, 2023

Alongside a tweet tagging Elon Musk, the screenshot read:

You must remove the 🇺🇦 from your profile Only Twitter Blue subscribers can visibly support Ukraine. It’ll just take a few minutes to remove it. Displaying this flag is considered a political statement against Russia, and as a neutral platform, we must moderate any political bias. Learn more about our new community guidelines.

To avoid losing access to Twitter, remove the 🇺🇦 from your profile by February 28, 2023.

In that context, the account appeared to imply they encountered the message in the course of their Twitter usage. At the end of the tweet, they asked if “anyone else gotten this popup yet or is it only us?”

On February 26 2023, another account shared the pop-up in a tweet expressing skepticism about its authenticity. Still another  repeated the rumor without a screenshot:

Re: "You must remove the 🇺🇦 from your profile"

Support the Arts!#Ukraine pic.twitter.com/szT0GII4AA

— 🌻🌊🪅༺ɛʟʄɛɢǟ ɮǟƈǟ༻🪅🌊🌻💉💉💉💉💉 (@ElfegaBaca) February 26, 2023

On Reddit, a post asking r/SlavaUkrayini about the rumor (“Elon musk now censoring the 🇺🇦 flag? Has anyone else gotten this twitter popup yet?”) was deleted, but without any indication as to why.

However, the comments provided information about the image and its origins, linking to a tweet with additional screenshots:

It's a mock up tweeted by WalterReport. I'm pretty sure they were the ones who created it.

They created a whole thread and it was very convincing. Then SEVEN HOURS later they admit it wan't true.

Walter Report then blocked accounts which criticised them for lying. pic.twitter.com/k40TTgJztv

— Sally Gibson 🚴‍♀️🇺🇦🕷️ (@SallyMGibbson) February 26, 2023

The second screenshot was a follow-up tweet by @walter_report from February 26 2023, archived here. In that tweet, the account admitted to fabricating the image:

Twitter is NOT banning the 🇺🇦… yet. The fact that it’s so believable Musk would do this is serious though.

Musk’s actions and tweets speak louder than fake memes and have real consequences for Ukraine.

A real threat to democracy is Musk echoing his far-right besties’ russian propaganda.

In late February 2023, screenshots of a “You must remove the 🇺🇦 from your profile” Twitter pop-up circulated, alongside tweets referencing the image without sharing it. Twitter user @walter_report’s initial tweet neared three million views as of February 27 2023, and hadn’t been deleted. @walter_report admitted the image was fabricated on February 26 2023, but a “correction” tweet was viewed 92.5 thousand times.