More from Twitter’s blue check apocalypse is here, and this is the full story
Washington Post columnist Geoffrey Fowler has again created a fake account for Sen. Ed Markey that was again verified as real by Twitter’s revamped authentication process:
I expected Twitter would ask me to prove my identity... But no. After 7 days, a blue check mark appeared on the faux Markey account, no questions asked.
Twitter’s new manual verification-and-labeling process is going just great, as the Norway’s Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have all been labeled “Nigeria government organization.”
Twitter is gearing up to relaunch its verification program as soon as tomorrow, though the release could be pushed to early next week, I’m told. The plan is for a total of three checkmarks: the paid Twitter Blue subscription for a blue check (existing, non-paid blue checks will lose them 90 days post-launch if they don’t pay), a grey check designated for government accounts and managed by Twitter, and a gold check for advertisers.
Based on what I’m hearing, Twitter is doing its best to avoid the impersonation fiasco that occurred after the brief rollout of paid verification before. This time, the plan is to temporarily remove an account’s blue check for seven days if the display name is changed. You’re welcome, Mario.
Senator Markey gave Musk until November 25th to respond to his concerns about paid verification, but Markey says on Twitter that the billionaire didn’t provide any answers.
Earlier this month, Markey warned Musk to “Fix your companies. Or Congress will,” after the two got into a spat on Twitter about fake verified accounts. In his most recent tweet, Markey calls on Congress to “pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires.”
When Mario flipped Twitter the bird, it was impersonating a big brand — something Twitter wants to stop so it can get that sweet advertiser cash. Yet Elon keeps insisting parody is allowed, and what the heck is the difference? But guy’s latest tweet makes me think he’s talking about a specific kind of parody.
See, Jesus Christ has been doing this for well over a decade, and so Twitter wasn’t just going to roll Him for fun, even if making big pharma lose billions is arguably way funnier. But if Twitter gives Jesus a “Parody” badge — a la the new “Official” badge — then Elon gets to be arbiter of what is and isn’t funny. Wait, I guess that isn’t actually better?
Is that really Tesla on Twitter? Who can tell.
Here’s a quick update from behind the scenes of running a “parody” account while it lasted.
Being able to pay $8 for a blue check means there have already been hoax NBA trade rumors, NFL coach firings, and more.
Fake Schefter accounts have existed for years, duping people not looking for the check mark or scrutinizing the news. The difference now is that the Tweet as pictured gives absolutely no indication outside of the username @AdamSchefterNOT that would lead people to know it’s not the actual ESPN NFL insider.
Who could have ever seen this extremely obvious situation unfolding exactly as it has?
If you have $7.99 and a burner account, you can become your boss on Twitter.
