Soon after Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk formally introduced the pay-for-verification mechanism, and some users have already exploited it. For $8 a month, those who disseminate fake news can use the tool to mimic someone else, and their content will be algorithmically promoted with no editorial oversight.
Many people have been impacted by this, including American professional basketball player LeBron James. James is portrayed as wanting to be traded by the Lakers on a bogus account that is becoming more popular. Then there is the phoney Nintendo of America account, which displays an image of the well-known Mario figure giving the middle finger (and has a blue tick).
Twitter Blue Tick : News anticipated to become a total mess according tweets
Following sports transactions and news could become a total mess with the new verification system
Already fake LeBron and Aroldis Chapman tweets going around pic.twitter.com/vQgMqws1W0
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022
The new Twitter Blue subscription has a blue tick that looks somewhat like the ones given to celebrities. The new tick appears precisely the same as a user scrolls through the feed. The distinction becomes apparent when users click on the badge and learn whether it was given to a famous person or purchased by a Twitter Blue subscriber.
Although several of these accounts have been suspended, the platform has already seen an increase in these fraudulent posts. Additionally, it is getting harder for Twitter to verify the account at the time of payment or to promptly stop it from disseminating bogus news as a result of mass layoffs.
Dude with 10 followers pays the $8 and immediately gets to impersonate @Jason,
and thanks to the blue check, he just might successfully confuse ppl and disparage bro’s name. @elonmusk, the monster you’ve created is already attacking the townsfolk. pic.twitter.com/baXIgXb6ca
— tony pierce (@busblog) November 9, 2022
Twitter rolled out an additional feature on Wednesday, giving organisations and celebrities a gray “official” label, but scrapped it hours later.
“I just killed it,” Mr Musk tweeted just hours after the new tag was added to government accounts as well as those of big companies and major media outlets.
“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” the world’s richest man added to explain the U-turn.
After a protracted legal struggle, Mr. Musk took over Twitter. On Tuesday, it was revealed that he had sold $4 billion worth of Tesla stock to help pay for a deal in which he had taken on massive amounts of debt.
