Tech

Twitter scrambles to limit the spread of fake accounts


Twitter's move to suspend its new paid checkmark system and reintroduce 'official' badges, is part of a fake effort

Twitter’s move to suspend the new paid checkmark system and reintroduce the ‘official’ badge, is part of an effort to fool the fake accounts that have been prevalent since Elon Musk took over.

Twitter ordered on Friday to curb fake accounts that have increased since Elon Musk’s takeover, suspending subscriptions to a new paid checkmark system and restoring the gray “official” badge on one account number.

The turnaround is the latest in a string of tumultuous developments on social media, which have hovered over the question of account verification since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition late last month.

The account @TwitterSupport tweeted early Friday that the gray checkmark indicates the “official” account will be active again, just days after it was introduced — then almost immediately removed. .

“To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” the filing states.

The label implementation seems inconsistent: it appears briefly then disappears from the network’s own account, @Twitter.

As of Friday morning, the company had also disabled Twitter Blue subscriptions, a feature advertised by free speech proponent Musk as giving “power to people” by giving ordinary users a verified blue tick — until reserved for featured accounts — for $8 per month.

An internal memo to Twitter employees, published by US media including The Washington Post, confirms that the feature has been temporarily disabled to “help with impersonation issues”.

When introducing a paid green check verification system, Musk warned that Twitter would be suspended fake account not clearly marked as parody.

But accounts impersonating public and business figures have continued to spread – with NBA star LeBron James and former British prime minister Tony Blair among those targeted.

US drugmaker Eli Lilly was forced to issue an apology on Thursday after a fake account – stamped with a purchased blue check mark – tweeted that insulin would be provided free of charge.

Fake account was removed and the company issued a statement apologizing.

The turmoil at Twitter has raised concerns about the potential for serious damage, should the nefarious become official representatives of powerful companies or government organisations.

And the mayhem — which saw two more top security executives quit on Thursday — delivered a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission saying it was monitoring developments. with “deep concern”.

That same day, Musk informed Twitter employees that the site was burning dangerously fast cash, sparking the specter of bankruptcy if the situation wasn’t turned around.

The warning comes a week after he fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees.

© 2022 AFP

Quote: Twitter tries to limit the spread of fake accounts (2022, 11 Nov) retrieved 11 Nov 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-11-twitter-scrambles -curb-fake-accounts.html

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