As promised, Elon Musk has had all old Twitter account verification badges removed. Now only Twitter Blue followers can view the badge, which loses its meaning.
Since 2009, Twitter offered a verification system for certain accounts of notable or public figures. As he had promised when buying the social network, Elon Musk put an end to this system.
A badge that no longer checks much
On Thursday, April 20, all Twitter accounts that benefited from a free verification badge, because the platform had been able to certify their identity, saw the famous badge disappear from their account.
It is important to remember that the purpose of this badge was to prevent identity theft by new accounts. Its inception dates back to issues with creating fake accounts claiming to be Kanye West or Tony La Russa. With the badge, users could trust that an account was indeed the official account of the person, brand or institute it was to represent.
Now for individuals, the badge is only for Twitter Blue subscribers. The problem is that there is no identity verification in this process. According to Elon Musk, it is now only a payment verification. Since the person is able to pay a monthly subscription, this must mean that it is a real person and not a bot. On the other hand, it is impossible to verify that this payment is used for an account corresponding to the declared identity.
As expected, the verification badge has therefore completely lost its primary meaning. It is now only used to identify people who pay for a subscription. No more no less.
The first accidents are there
The administrations which refuse to pay the subscription, estimated at more than 1000 dollars per month, have therefore also seen their badge disappear. Twitter has implemented a gray badge for political figures, but this is done à la carte without control for the accounts in question. For example, the official New York City account no longer has a verification badge as of this writing.
The Elon clusterfuck is ON pic.twitter.com/4dRlYq8GLz
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) April 20, 2023
This is how an account had fun taking over the identity of New York City. Without a badge, it is difficult to verify at first sight which is the real account. Fortunately, the fake account was quickly suspended.
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