Twitter’s core software is reportedly showing signs of showing signs of cracking for some users, without enough engineers to maintain it. Cybersecurity and privacy experts are concerned that it’s becoming a “Wild West” when it comes to data breaches and vulnerability to hackers.
So far there hasn’t been a mass exodus — users in politics and the media are watching and waiting, and Twitter has remained largely reliable as a real-time news platform. But Schmidt says she and her colleagues are trying to determine whether it’s safe for their clients to continue advertising, or even stay on Twitter altogether.
Several Washington communications veterans contacted by POLITICO said versions of the same thing: Twitter should now be handled very carefully by anyone concerned about their public image.
“Whether it’s a politician, a candidate, or a business, they need a platform that has credibility and that’s consistent and aligned with their values,” said Sean Higgins, a veteran of the DC political communications scene and deputy associate president at Precision Strategies. . “So far, Twitter hasn’t demonstrated an ability to deliver any of those things under Elon Musk’s leadership — and that’s a problem.”
At the heart of the anxiety is that in just two weeks since Musk took over, Twitter has largely dismantled its previous system for verifying accounts, launching a short-lived subscription service that allowed “verified” status for anyone willing to pay 8 dollars and generates a false measure. accounts for heads of government agencies, companies and politicians.
It launched, canceled and re-launched a new “official” badge to identify real accounts, but which appears to be applied unevenly. So does the tag “United States Government Organization,” which appears on the Twitter account for the Department of Defense, but not the White House or other major agencies like FEMA.
As Twitter works to fix its content moderation problems with a skeleton team, Higgins warned that businesses and advertisers were running out of “a lot of patience”.
Musk has argued that all this attention has been good for Twitter, and says it’s more says it is most popular among users than ever. But what to some looks like a satirical free-for-all, to others looks like the rapid unraveling of a platform that, over the past few years, had become a safely controlled, if occasionally toxic, public forum. .
At the heart of Twitter’s rapid operational changes is Musk’s stated goal of “disrupting” the mainstream media’s “information oligopoly” by “removing citizen journalism” — and, more importantly, earning $8 per subscriber with payment on the way. But before that happens, the rig owner must face the steep real-world consequences of breaking the machine he built to ensure reliability.
Chris Riotta, a cybersecurity writer for the federal tech trade publication DC FCW puts it this way: “Elon Musk’s decision to monetize Twitter verification … marks the end of an era for social media where Twitter users can easily confirm whether a post is trustworthy.”
Shares of insulin maker Eli Lilly fell sharply after a false tweet that its insulin was now free. And Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent Musk a strongly worded letter demanding an explanation after a Washington Post reporter posed as a politician just to show how easy it was.
Musk characteristically took Markey’s criticism as an opportunity to write a reply trollingtweeting: “Maybe it’s because your real account sounds like a parody?”
Markey did not take kindly to the answer. “Regulate your companies. Or Congress will,” the senator tweetedwarning Musk that one of his companies is under an FTC consent decree.
The growing spate of incidents marks a reversal of years of efforts to turn Twitter from a frivolous chat room for tech insiders to the most important and trusted source of real-time news on the Internet.
A DC crisis communications professional with four years of experience supporting clients in the tech industry said: “Between the contentious brand Musk has created for himself on social media and the public’s tendency to use humor to cope with current events, people they may have started to lose. I hope that the matter can be solved”.
DC stalwarts like Tom Wheeler, a Brookings friend and former FCC chairman, have already cited the increased regulatory risk Musk and Twitter face. Wheeler added that the surprise awaiting the platform’s new owner is how lawmakers and agencies that rely on Twitter for their messaging will react to “the potential that such capricious actions could affect their political brand.”
Mark MacCarthy, a senior fellow at Brookings, had an open assessment of Twitter’s new plan to sell verification tags. He called her “stupid.” MacCarthy is a professor of communication at Georgetown and a former staff member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Skeptical that a “market” on verification could ever work, MacCarthy said, “Musk needs to get back to the hard work of weeding out fake accounts using signals, judgment, context and intuition. It takes some of the people he has kicked out of the company.”
Despite assurances from Musk himself earlier this week, digital advertisers seem to agree with MacCarthy. Many have pulled back on Twitter ad spend as they wait through the confusion.
