Live blog: Twitter chaos – what’s going on?
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So it seems almost inevitable that the Blue Tick verification process has been canned.
The chaos continues. Twitter pulls plug Twitter Blue, subscriptions and paid verification blue tick no longer available.Nov 11, 2022
As the tweet above indicates, the chaos continues – which is why we started this live blog. What is going on?
Here’s an example of how hard some of these fake accounts are to spot:
The first account is the verified official account. Second, there is an $8 fake thanks to the Musk subscription. Easy to see when you look at the follower count, very, very hard to tell when it’s shared in your feed. Actually impossible without clicking through. HT @meemalee for spotting. pic.twitter.com/uKumOYRTeINov 10, 2022
Musk himself fell victim to this, with numerous fake accounts surfacing claiming to be him — and with a Blue Tick to prove it. This seemed to be the last straw, as Musk went on to bounce back on some of the more lax elements of the new verification process.
Going forward, accounts engaged in parody should include “parody” in their name, not just bioNov 11, 2022
However, as people predicted, verified accounts started popping up on Twitter, and while many of them were clearly parodies, as they had the “Blue Tick,” it became hard to tell, especially with the more subtle accounts.
Unsurprisingly, the individuals and companies that were parodied weren’t too happy about this.
A brand new parody Twitter account that paid for verification and chose the display name of ESPN’s Adam Schefter who tweeted Josh McDaniels was fired. The credible-looking tweet received nearly 10,000 engagements. Twitter suspended the account after two hours. https://t.co/diegQfkpA1Nov 9, 2022
Worryingly for Twitter, many brands began announcing that they would no longer advertise on the platform.
Despite the concerns and complaints, Musk was initially dismissive.
To all complainers, please keep complaining, but it costs $8Nov 2, 2022
Posting memes about people’s complaints made a lot of people feel like he wasn’t really taking the issue seriously.
Perhaps the most controversial thing to come out of Musk’s Twitter takeover are the changes in how accounts are verified.
Previously, if the verified account of a media outlet (such as TechRadar (opens in new tab)) or another organization has published something, at least you know it comes from an official source. The Blue Check also allowed Twitter users to tell the difference between the many celebrities on Twitter and users imitating them.
However, Musk has made a change that allows anyone to be verified for $8 a month.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for those who do or do not have a blue tick is nonsense. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.Nov 1, 2022
This led some people to worry that users could impersonate official accounts and be easily verified, making it difficult for people to see which accounts were real – and which were not. And that’s exactly what happened.