New subscription rule leads to fake celebrity accounts on Twitter
Despite the threat of bans, some Twitter users created fake celebrity accounts after the verification system was changed.
The coveted verification checkmarks, which Twitter is breaking new ground by awarding to subscription customers, were immediately misused for misleading posts. For example, the alleged account of basketball star LeBron James announced on Wednesday that he wanted to leave the Los Angeles Lakers.
It was easy to mistake the account for real: Next to the athlete's name was the familiar white checkmark on a blue background, and the account name was also confusingly similar: "@KINGJamez" instead of the real "@KingJames." The account was indeed blocked - but only after it had already received wider attention. Fake accounts were also created for other celebrities and companies.
Gray check mark abandoned
The verification checkmark was previously reserved for celebrities, politicians, organizations and companies whose identity was verified by Twitter. Under the new system, everyone who takes out a subscription for eight dollars a month gets it. There is no longer a verification process. Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he assumed that authentication through payment services and app platforms, as well as the risk of losing the account and the money paid in the event of violations, offered sufficient protection against abuse.
At times, an additional gray check mark was also planned for previous owners of verified accounts. Musk only stopped its introduction on Wednesday, when the first profiles had already received the checkmark.
The tech billionaire had announced the reorganization of account verification as one of the first steps after the roughly $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. He announced that previous verified account holders who did not want to pay eight dollars a month would lose their checkmarks in a few months. (SDA)
