technology
“Truth cannot be sold for $8,” said Senator Ed Markey – the real Markey, that is.
A technology columnist with Washington Post tested the limits of Twitter’s revamped Blue subscription service by creating an account impersonating Senator Ed Markey. Al Drago/Associated Press
At first glance, @realEdMarkey may appear to be the real deal.
The Twitter account tweeted about fossil fuel companies’ price gouging, touted Markey’s Malden roots and even displayed a blue sign, once a sign of authenticity.
But on Friday morning, Senator Ed Markey – tweets on his current account, @SenMarkey – announced that he was “easily impersonated and the account was quickly verified.”
The hoaxer’s account was not a hoaxer’s trick or a practical joke, but an experiment by a technology columnist with Washington Posttesting the limits of Elon Musk’s renewed $7.99 per month Blue Twitter subscription service.
While Twitter previously used blue ticks to indicate “active, visible and authentic accounts of public interest” that it had independently verified, users can now receive a check by purchasing a subscription, according to the company.
“Accounts that receive the blue tick as part of a Twitter Blue subscription will not be subject to review to confirm that they meet the active, visible, and authentic criteria that were used in the previous process,” Twitter explains.
Courtesy of Markey, post Tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler created a fraudulent account and received a blue check in just minutes. Fowler also created a “verified” account under the name of comedian Blaire Erskines.
“A blue tick no longer means someone is who they say they are — and that makes Twitter a much less reliable source of information,” Fowler wrote.
Twitter users have taken advantage of the revamped Twitter Blue to impersonate celebrities and politicians; two accounts claiming to belong to former President George W. Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair exchanged tweets about how they “miss out on killing Iraqis,” CBS News reported.
Drug maker Eli Lilly and Company issued an apology after a fraudulent account tweeted that insulin would be free.
In it Web pageTwitter said accounts created on or after Nov. 9 are not eligible for Twitter Blue while the platform works on an updated process to help minimize impersonation risks.
The company also said that Twitter Blue’s follower checkmarks could be busy for violating Twitter’s rules about spam, banning evasion and impersonation, among other reasons.
“Going forward, accounts involved in parodies must include ‘parody’ in their name, not just in their bio,” Musk posted on Twitter Thursday, adding, “To be more precise, accounts that do parody impersonations. Basically, cheating people is not okay.”
Until Friday, Twitter appeared to have with disabilities new registrations on Twitter Blue, according to Forbes.
Although the platform has not released an official statement regarding the deactivation of Twitter Blue, Forbes reported that the option to sign up was not available Friday morning. Of Twitter the communications team did not immediately respond to Boston.com’s request for comment.
Markey, a longtime critic of Big Tech, tweeted Friday that Twitter and its leadership “have a responsibility to the public to ensure that the platform does not become a breeding ground for manipulation and fraud.”
“Safeguards like Blue Checks allow users to be smart, critical consumers of news and information in Twitter’s global city square,” he wrote. “Truth cannot be sold for $8.”
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