New York
CNN Business
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In 2009, after Twitter was sued by the St. After Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was impersonated on the platform, the new company introduced a new feature: a blue and white check mark.
The audit showed that Twitter had verified the accounts of artists, athletes, government officials and agencies and other public figures. The option, which starting with plans to verify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was introduced as a protection for individuals at risk of fraudulent impersonation of their accounts and as a benefit to all users — a means of letting people know that they can they trust information that is shared by prominent figures.
It soon became one of the platform’s signature features, copied by rivals like Facebook, and created a new kind of cultural packaging for those who adopted it. Now, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, is looking to overhaul the way verification works, with the potential to not only change who gets a coveted blue tick, but also create new headaches for users in discovering of false and fraudulent activities on the platform.
Musk confirmed this week that he is working to launch an updated version of the company’s Twitter Blue subscription service, in which any user can pay $8 a month to get or stay verified. The world’s richest man has also used populist language, framing the move as a way to break “Twitter’s current lords and peasants system of who does or doesn’t have a blue tick”.
If users buy in, the plan could be a new revenue driver for Twitter, something Musk needs after his $44 billion acquisition of the company, which was financed in part with debt. He has also suggested that verifying more actual, human users could help address the proliferation of fake and spam accounts he claimed to be concerned about during his months-long effort to exit the buyout deal.
The logic seems to go something like this: Requiring users to pay for verification, using a bank account or credit card, would create a higher barrier to entry for inauthentic accounts. Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday that if accounts verified under his new system engage in “spam/fraud/impersonation, they will be suspended, but Twitter will keep their money!” And he said he would create a special tag that would appear under the name of public figures, similar to how Twitter already identifies government officials and representatives of state media organizations.
But the move could discourage some prominent accounts from being verified, making it harder for users to determine which ones are authentic. And it’s not clear that it will prevent inauthentic and bot activity either.
“In effect, this is making Twitter a pay-to-play system, and we know that propagandists, people who work to spread misinformation and other forms of manipulation through Twitter, are very willing and able to fund their operations. ,” said Samuel Woolley. , assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Information and author of the book “Bots.”
“Most of the propagandists that social media companies are most concerned about, like the Russian government, the Chinese government, extremist groups, have a lot of resources,” he said.
Currently, Woolley said, to get around Twitter’s verification requirement that users link a mobile phone number to their account, bad actors will “buy thousands of smartphones and put them on shelves … and that’s a much more costly endeavor than paying an $8 verification fee.” In theory, a person could also pay to verify an account and then let a computer run it, effectively creating an automated (or “bot”) verified account.
There may be other complicating factors. Users may have concerns about handing over their bank or credit card information to a company suspected of having major security vulnerabilities, according to a whistleblower complaint against the company just a few months ago. In many parts of the world, people do not have easy access to banking services. And many regular Twitter users who don’t worry about being imitated and don’t care about Twitter “influence” may not care to pay for a blue check either.
It’s also not clear what would stop someone from creating and paying to verify an account that fraudulently impersonates someone else, thereby undermining the original intent of the feature. It’s not hard to imagine someone paying to verify themselves as a customer support agent for a particular company and then using the credibility that comes from having a blue badge to scam unsuspecting customers.
Twitter did not immediately respond to questions about the plan, including how it would prevent such impersonation.
Musk has said his goal in buying Twitter is to strengthen “free speech,” but some worry the new subscription option could create a two-tier speech system based on who can and can’t. afford to pay. With the new plan, for example, subscribers will get priority in replies, mentions and searches, as well as the ability to post longer video and audio content while getting half as many ads as free users, according to Musk.
“You’re really saying that the free speech of people who pay is more important than the free speech of people who can’t,” said Jessica Gonzales, co-CEO of media accountability Free Press, who was part of a civil group. company leaders who met with Musk earlier this week to discuss content moderation and a recent surge in hate speech on the platform. “I actually told him … that I think $8 a month is very problematic.”
The proposed subscription update has been floated by several high-profile Twitter users, including author Stephen King and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. “Lmao at a billionaire trying hard to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually an $8/month subscription plan,” Ocasio Cortez said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Musk on Wednesday hit back at critics of the plan, saying in a tweet: “To all the complainers, please keep complaining, but it will cost $8.”
— CNN’s Jennifer Korn contributed to this report.
