Twitter Blue Is a Gateway to ‘Verified’ Fake Accounts

Farhan AliPublished on November 10, 2022
Farhan "RhymesWithBuck" Ali is a professional Rainbow Six Siege player for The Shaheens.
Image: Twitter

In exchange for $8 a month, Twitter Blue users could have any of their accounts verified, giving them access to the ‘valuable’ blue checkmark. As a result of the change, individuals are already willing to pay to pretend as some of the most well-known businesses and celebrities in the world.

The “blue checkmark” trust indicator was only given out by the social media platform if an account satisfied certain requirements and was verified to be who they said they were. However, once Elon Musk purchased the company, the parameters were relaxed. After Twitter Blue’s release, however, the platform became a free-for-all. There was growing criticism that every other account on Twitter had a blue checkmark, prompting the social media platform to take action.

To identify verified accounts, they implemented a grey checkmark alongside an official badge. Unfortunately, the move backfired when hundreds of fake accounts claiming to represent major brands like Nintendo flooded the platform within hours of its launch.

Image: @esthercrawford

Since every change causes problems, the question becomes: Were the problems here particularly severe enough to justify the reversal of the decision?

The official Nintendo of America Twitter account appeared to tweet several baffling photographs of Super Mario, including one in which he appeared to give the middle finger. This fake account, with the name @nlntendoofus, was quickly suspended when its posts were widely shared across Twitter.

As if that weren’t enough, there was a Twitter account advertising a “competitive platform” and pretending to be Valve. Even though the account name is actually valvesotfware and Valve would never make an announcement this way, many people apparently thought it was real due to the huge blue tick next to its name.

Moreover, an account using the handle @RockstarGamse (nice) tweeted the release date for GTA VI, which, to be fair, blew up quite quickly, and it’d be lame to wonder why?

Though Twitter quickly suspended the accounts in question, the damage had already been done, catching the attention of at least a few people.

 

 

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Farhan AliPublished on November 10, 2022
Farhan "RhymesWithBuck" Ali is a professional Rainbow Six Siege player for The Shaheens.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Farhan Ali


Farhan is a passionate writer with an undying love for games, PC hardware, and technology. With nearly 5 years of experience in blogging and over 14 years of experience in gaming, this is what he loves and does best.