New Twitter Rules Let Scammers Hold Sports Day

Fake “parody” Twitter accounts have flooded the platform since the social media giant’s new owner Elon Musk dropped its verification policy.

Just two weeks ago, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion. Since then, advertisers have fled and “verified” impersonators have wreaked havoc.

The turmoil follows Musk’s decision to offer the platform’s blue check mark to all users for a $7.99 monthly subscription, rather than just public interest verified accounts.

Musk argued that the paid system beats bots and trolls. But shortly after the company launched its subscription service on Wednesday, a BlueTick account pretending to be Bush tweeted, “I miss you killing Iraqis,” with a sad-faced emoji.

NBA star LeBron James and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair have also been impersonated, with the latter’s fake account retweeting Blair’s post, adding:

Fake accounts of several major brands, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, Eli Lilly and Co, Nestle, and Lockheed Martin, are marked with blue checkmarks.

Critics have accused governments and other agencies of spoofing Twitter accounts when citizens rely on social media to stay up to date with local government and other relevant information, especially in emergencies, including natural disasters. It warns about the danger of vandalism.

The company announced on Friday that it would remove the “official” badge given to some accounts and then restore it after a few days.

“We have added the ‘Official’ label to some accounts to combat impersonation,” Twitter’s support account tagged ‘Official’ tweeted on Friday. Musk tweeted Wednesday that he “killed” the new label just hours after rolling it out.

Meanwhile, many users said they no longer had the option to sign up for Twitter Blue, the $8 subscription service that comes with bluetick verification.

‘Deep concern’

More turmoil followed later in the week as key security executives resigned from the platform and received harsh warnings from US regulators.

“I have made the difficult decision to leave Twitter,” tweeted chief security officer Lea Kissner, who reportedly resigned along with other key privacy or security executives.

Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, has also stepped down, just one day after he staunchly defended Musk’s content moderation policy against advertisers.

Musk warned employees on Thursday that the site was running out of cash at an alarming rate and threatened bankruptcy if things didn’t improve.

The turmoil drew a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission, the US agency overseeing consumer safety that has been monitoring Twitter for past security and privacy breaches.

An FTC spokesperson said in a statement: “We are following the recent developments on Twitter with great concern.

Referring to Twitter’s past commitments to comply with U.S. privacy regulations, the spokesperson said, “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must comply with our consent decree.” added.

Violating an FTC decision could cost a company millions of dollars in fines.

Source: TRTWorld and institutions