Identity theft is a crime when used to commit fraud. Just claiming to be someone but not otherwise defrauding anyone is fine.
From what I have read in American News Media I see so many things that have been blatant lies published by respected News Media like NYT and WaPo. But I don't think I have come across corrections regarding such national and international stories.
Regarding your statement - " ... degrades the value of our public spaces." I believe even your mainstream news media is guilty of the same.
The news is that they're effectively removing what verification there was, and the checkmark becomes basically a TF2 hat that means nothing. You'll be able to change your display name to "Elon Musk" and buy a checkmark.