Paid certification, via Twitter Blue, is already starting to take its toll.
While waiting for a change that seems both essential and urgent, the Twitter moderation team will have a lot of work to do…
The “Official” sticker is already over
This is the big upheaval at Twitter. For a few hours now, holders of a Twitter Blue account have been able to benefit from certification, in the same way as personalities, companies, brands… To differentiate them, the network had put in place a new badge yesterday ” Official “, but the latter was removed a few hours later.
At present, at first glance, it is indistinguishable from an official Certified Account to a Certified Account through a Twitter Blue subscription. You have to click on the tablet to find out more. At first glance, it is impossible to tell the two apart. And this is already leading to various abuses.
The full of certified fake accounts already on Twitter
In recent hours, many Twitter users have been able to obtain the precious certification by paying the 8 dollars requested by Elon Musk. A certification that flatters the ego of many users, which must also improve the position of the tweets by the algorithm, but which is also used (and everyone felt it happening) for much less benevolent purposes.
Thus, we were able to see a fake Nintendo of America account appear, benefiting from the certification. The latter tweeted (among other things) an image representing Mario giving his community the middle finger. A message retweeted and liked several thousand times, all suggesting (always apparently) an account could not be more official created by the Japanese brand.
In another register, an official and certified account has also been created in the name of John Lennon, the latter tweeting directly from beyond. Another fake account certified in the name of LeBron James posted a fake announcement about the player, with a departure from the Los Angeles Lakers. We can also mention a fake account dedicated to Valve, again benefiting from certification and taking pleasure in publishing false information.
For some users, this is just to demonstrate how embedding certification via Twitter Blue is a mistake, as long as it is displayed identically to a real certification. Some accounts therefore act under the guise of humor, some are simply delighted to finally be able to benefit from the blue badge, but others are able to spread, and in a very viral way, dangerous fake news.
According to Ben Collins, of NBCNews : “ It’s going to be a nightmare that will be very funny, before being scary. The proof recently with a discussion between the fake accounts, both certified via Twitter Blue, of Tony Blair and a certain George W. Bush, and relayed by Michaël Szadkowski.
Currently, by opting for the Twitter Blue formula, a user is therefore able to impersonate any identity, while displaying the certification supposed to prove the authenticity of the account. Obviously, the accounts in question are quickly suspended – it remains to be seen how the whole thing will work once the Twitter Blue function is extended to the whole world…
Elon Musk currently delighted with Twitter Blue
Note that Elon Musk recently tweeted that Twitter was going to ” lots of silly things in the next few months to test what may or may not work.
It remains to be seen now if the CEO of Twitter will realize fairly quickly the error committed with the paid certification system that is currently in place. A solution that is both simple and quick would simply be to change the color of the badge to differentiate Twitter Blue subscribers from personalities who need to certify their identity.
For now, to a Tesla account that has purchased its certification and asking its community about what it thinks of Twitter Blue, Elon Musk responds ” It’s awesome ! “.
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