Offering retorts to her critics as well as good-natured sparring with her husband, the @wendi_deng account was believed to be real and had been verified by Twitter. News International had also confirmed to the BBC that the account was official.
However this morning Twitter communicated that the account was in fact a spoof and that it had been mistakenly approved.
“We can confirm that the @wendi_deng account was mistakenly verified for a short period of time and apologize for the confusion caused,” the social networking site revealed.
The fake Wendi Deng appeared to admonish her husband by Tweeting “RUPERT!!! Delete tweet!” after Rupert Murdoch Tweeted a joke about Britain having too many holidays for a “broke country”.
A man living in London is believed to be behind the fake account.
“I set up the account as a laugh when I was bored over the new year holiday and saw all the hype surrounding Rupert Murdoch joining Twitter,” the account holder said via email.
“When twitter verified it I was completely and utterly shocked.
“And a little nervous too, if I’m honest, about what had happened and whether it had all gone too far.
“I just couldn’t believe they would have verified such a high profile account without checking it out, but I absolutely received no communication from Twitter to the email address I used to register.
“If that’s their security process for high profile users, then I do think they need to rethink it urgently.”
