Twitter, Elon Musk and the drama of verifying official accounts

Social media has been with us for over a decade, and we’ve used it for many things, like sharing photos from our vacations, thoughts with friends, or learning how to do new things. Twitter has always been a rare bird, a small company compared to the others, but with far greater relevance than its numbers implied.

The social network of journalists

Although the network founded by Jack Dorsey started almost as a message board, it quickly became almost real-time television news. It was the place where before you found out what was happening in the world.

This attracted many journalists and media workers, who saw it as an easy way to keep up to date.

This is the first step in why Twitter started gaining relevance in a way that might not be artificial, but at least not as organic as Facebook or Instagram.

The social network of businesses and governments

Similarly, gradually, government agencies, organizations and politicians began to join the network, which saw it as a showcase, in part because some of the journalists covering their work were already there.

[Todos los nuevos símbolos de Twitter explicados: azul, dorado, gris…]

Thus, personalities of the caliber of the Pope or the President of the United States created profiles in which it ended up being confirmed as the place of the digital city.

The need for verification

The presence of these people, of well-known public interest, led to the create a way to identify them as real,

This is important in the case of politicians, but also in the case of journalists, who could also be targets of identity theft, especially those operating in countries with autocratic or directly dictatorial regimes.

The blue tick became a way to confirm that you were talking to a public figure and that it wasn’t someone trying to impersonate them.

From verified to exclusive

The problem came when many people began to see this sign as synonymous with exclusivity, belonging to a closed club, better than ordinary tweeters.

It never was, of course, but the human mind doesn’t always reason correctly.

This has inspired many of them to try to reach this sign, to feel part of this group.

Pay for the happy badge

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he warned that he was going to make many changes, some of which would be criticized. And boy were they.

One of his more controversial strategies was to ensure that anyone who paid for Twitter Blue, his monthly subscription service, received the blue check, which was the same one that the public figures involved had.

Obviously, it wasn’t an option to create a new badge for them, as there would continue to be a split between those who had blue checked and those who had it of another color.

The blue check no longer means anything

Currently, Twitter’s verification system involves nothing more than knowing that a user is paying for Twitter Blue.

It’s a problem when official accounts and public figures have missed the mark, with other accounts already starting to create fake profiles impersonating them.

An example is that of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, which has already warned on the social network that it has lost its blue badge and that accounts could be created to try to scam users on Twitter.

This is not the only case we have seen, and multiple entities of all their verifications, and in some cases there is even impersonation.

En este caso parece que Twitter ha suspendido la cuenta que estaba intentando hacerse pasar por el ayuntamiento de Nueva York, pero no siempre tenemos esta velocidad de respuesta.

Elon Musk ha despedido a un porcentaje enorme de los trabajadores de Twitter, lo que hace que las tareas de moderación sean ingentes. Y no siempre salgan bien.

Aún se mantienen las verificaciones grises, para gobiernos, pero son muy pocos los perfiles que las tienen, y muchas entidades locales de muchos países aún pueden ser suplantadas, así como servicios de emergencia.

Stephen King y el pagafantismo de Elon Muck

El último movimiento en esta historia lo protagonizan algunas cuentas de personajes públicos que tienen la insignia azul sin haber pagado por ello.

Es el caso de Stephen King, que se ha mostrado sorprendido por no haber perdido la verificación cuando él ya dejó meridianamente claro que no iba a pagar por Twitter Blue.

Elon Musk ha tenido que reconocer que hay algunas cuentas que tienen activo Twitter Blue sin que tengan que pagar. Parece claro que si una de esas cuentas se suplantara el daño a la imagen de Twitter sería devastador, incluso para los estándares del magnate sudafricano.

Esto demuestra que Elon sabe que es un problema que cuentas con millones de seguidores, personajes públicos, se vean suplantados, con lo que eso puede significar para usurpadores de identidad, estafadores y, sobre todo, para los usuarios normales de Twitter.

Twitter ya no es el sitio al que ir a consultar algo por defecto

Hace unas horas hablaba con unos amigos que también trabajan en medios online sobre la deriva de Twitter, y me di cuenta de que tras estos bandazos, la red social ya no es el sitio al que ir a preguntar algo a una entidad oficial si tienes un problema, o donde ir a informarte sobre una emergencia, sin saber si lo que ves es parte de una cuenta oficial o de alguien que intenta suplantarla.

Imaginad una cuenta falsa de un gobiernos que cree una publicación con un enlace para realizar una consulta online y que ese link lleve a una web que imita la oficial y extraigan datos personales, bancarios, etc.

[Descarga Bluesky para Android, la app que será el futuro de Twitter]

Blue verification prevented that, at a glance, but now it’s not like that anymore, now you have to wait to report these fake accounts and hope no one falls through while the few Twitter moderators take action.

It will be much easier to stop trusting Twitter than to redouble our efforts to keep trying to use it the way we used to.

And in those we are, ceasing to trust Twitter.

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