No #AprilFools: @Twitter to remove @verified status from journalists, after enabling anonymous accounts to spread misinformation & lies using @elonmusk’s ill-designed pay-to-get-seen system “to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility” apnews.com/article/ohio-t…
News media should make it clearer that Musk’s animus towards journalists is being expressed through removing @verified status, as with his attempts to delegitimize journalism & outlets which holds him to account.
Lewinsky is one of many public figures in the USA who will face impersonation if @Twitter goes ahead with Musk’s unwise plan to de-@verify people & organizations who don’t pay for @TwitterBlue.
(It will be worse in other nations, given @TwitterSafety & @TwitterSupport capacity.)
We should expect impersonation, fraud, & phishing to result from enabling people to add @verified to a plausible namespace to spike on #AprilFoolsDay.
If public trust diminishes & platform integrity erodes as rumors, conspiracies, & hoaxes spread, users & advertisers will leave.
As I told the @AP, the reason @verified status exists on @Twitter was not to designate people as notable or authorities, but to prevent impersonation: apnews.com/article/elon-m… There shouldn’t be a different standard, but public figures will be impersonated. It won’t be “glorious.”
It won’t be “glorious” on #AprilFoolsDay if @Twitter removes @verified status from all who don’t pay — likely to be the vast majority of ~419K verified accounts.
Instead, Musk’s expectation that celebs + consumers will pay for a key free feature will be exposed as delusional.
IMO, alienating & downranking celebrities, politicians, & journalists who tweet free content is one of the most foolish things the owner of a social media platform based on ads can do — much less @Twitter.
(I don’t think it’s a wise approach for a subscription-based app, either.)
"The more @Twitter erects subscription barriers, the less it will serve as the 'global town square' @elonmusk has envisioned"-@scottros axios.com/newsletters/ax…
"When @verified just means someone paid a small fee, the door is open that much wider to misinformation,hoaxes &frauds"
@TwitterBlue is a way to promote tweets & tweet longer, not to be @verified as authentic.
For $1000/month + $50/account, organizations can pay @Twitter to… “reach their followers.” help.twitter.com/en/using-twitt…
NB:
-“Twitter reserves the right without notice to remove your checkmark at any time at its sole discretion”
-Organizations have access to Premium @TwitterSupport
Charging people to be @verified was always a bad idea:
“It is our understanding that @TwitterBlue does not provide person-level verification as a service”-@RFlaherty46
“a blue check mark will now…serve as a verification that the account is a paid user”
TBD: how/if @OMBPress advises agencies to get ✔️Official: help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p…
April 20 was indeed the Great Unverification.
Unclear how many of the ~400K+ @verified accounts overall have paid for @TwitterBlue, but many folks I follow have not.
I bet we will see unverified local, state, & federal government agencies & officials looking for grey checks soon.
While I’m not surprised that Donald Trump didn’t pay @elonmusk to be @verified as a @TwitterBlue subscriber, I am surprised that @Twitter chose to unverifying @realDonaldTrump instead of giving him a grey check, as it has many personal/campaign accounts of Members of Congress.
(@WhiteHouse & its now unverified official accounts are not.)
A new @Princeton study analyzed 15 million tweets in October 2022 & found how different @TwitterBlue subscribers are from the ~406K formerly @verified users, from account creation date to crypto promotion to political lean to journalists (biggest delta): cs.princeton.edu/~jrmayer/paper…
The deverification of official government accounts by @Twitter is one of the worst decisions I’ve seen by a tech company in 3 decades online: bad for business, bad for consumers, bad for democracy & civic integrity.
Reverifying celebrities & media with huge following is…not the turn I was expecting today.
The end result: many of @Twitter’s most popular users are now tweeting that they didn’t pay, & don’t want people to think they did.
One of the biggest self-owns in Internet history 👏
This week, @Meta nudged me to “get a verified badge” on @instagram, offering “extra account security,” “direct support,” & lmore stickers,” for just $14.99 (!).
No, thank you.
@facebook verified me long ago, & knows exactly who I am.
Spot-on analysis by @b_fung of the disastrous business decisions Musk has made, from misunderstanding why accounts were @verified to alienating the key group of people who drove engagement & thus advertising revenue: cnn.com/2023/04/24/tec… He made a status symbol & brand toxic.
In April 2023, a @policy @esthercrawford issued remains in effect: a select, opaque group of governments, companies, media, & “some public figures” stay @verified — unless the sysadmin (@elonmusk) feels like unverifying, verifying, or trolling the people who gave @Twitter tweets.
“If the old criteria was much more rigorous, then the people who have been using Twitter would have understood [@verified] to mean something it no longer means. To be an FTC violation as deceptive, what matters is how people interpret it" qz.com/elon-musk-is-c… False endorsement
Twitter’s conflation of ID & subscribers means “checks, colors & meanings are a mess, which increases the risk that people will either be misled by a fake government account or less trusting of a real government account. That’s a lose-lose”-@jonathanmayer govtech.com/policy/post-bl…
The de-verification of official government accounts by @Twitter is one of the worst decisions I’ve seen by a tech company in 3 decades online: bad for business, bad for consumers, bad for democracy & civic integrity.
This will be clearer in natural disasters, wars, & elections.
As I’ve said for years, @ev@jack & @paraga’s neglect of @verified system was a huge problem: they allowed ✅for identify to be conflated with status & accuracy.
@elonmusk made it much worse by confusing identity with @TwitterBlue, removing labels, & unverifying institutions.
As I told @LindsayCrudele, @elonmusk’s decisions to “boost” paying @TwitterBlue subscribers — who lean overwhelmingly to the right & love cryptocurrency — remove curbs from state media propaganda, & unverify journalists all changed what @Twitter amplifies. govtech.com/policy/post-bl…
Cold take: The arrest of Pavel Durov is not a global threat to freedom of expression, but rather a threat to executives of tech companies who behave with impunity when a platform they operate is abused by organized criminals or corrupt politicians. civic-texts.ghost.io/what-the-arres…
This is not the “end of global social media,” as @semaforben suggested, but it may be the beginning of the end of impunity for tech billionaires who behave as if they are beyond the reach of accountability for harms that their unregulated platforms cause offline.
“We have spent many hours at 404 Media discussing amongst ourselves why there is so much crime on @Telegram itself and why Telegram has continued to let blatant criminal organizations operate on its platform in open, unencrypted channels. The only theory that makes any sense thus far is that the company sees itself as operating entirely outside the law.” 404media.co/how-telegrams-…
Transparency & accountability have not been a priority for a @WhiteHouse that briefs on background & relegates open government to a compliance exercise.
Opacity atop secrecy: @politico granted US officials anonymity to say @DeptofDefense did not tell @POTUS @JakeSullivan46 & NSC aides @SecDef was hospitalized for 3 days,
Austin recognized he “could have done better job” informing the public.
@politico @DeptofDefense @POTUS @JakeSullivan46 @SecDef Official opacity: @Axios granted the @WhiteHouse anonymity to claim that President Biden & Austin had “a warm conversation” & that @POTUS “has full confidence in @SecDef & is “ looking forward to him being back at the Pentagon.”
I heard a thunderclap in DC on a sunny day.
It appears it was a sonic boom from @DeptofDefense fighters scrambled from Andrews @airforce Base to intercept an unresponsive Cessna that overflew DC.
This is the least useful PSA I’ve encountered in some time, @AlertDC — could you please investigate and then elaborate when you confirm what has happened, @DC_HSEMA@SafeDC ?
🚨✈️🛫💨💥?
I take it back, @AlertDC: it was useful to hear that “there is no great at this time,” but being aware of reports of a loud “boom” doesn’t add much context for millions of people wondering what we heard.
If you know there was a sonic boom from scrambled fighters, please say so.
I’m at the historic @WarnerTheater in DC to bear witness what @PowerUSAID invited all Americans to learn about this morning:
How Ukraine is delivering services online in a democracy at war with @USAID. @karaswisher live now: usaid.gov/diiaindc
19M Ukrainians using DIAA now
As @karaswisher said, there has a been backpack against disruptive technologies like the Internet, smartphones, & social media.
We now worry about AI.
But all governments must harness these technologies to provide critical info & deliver services to networked publics, everywhere.
Today, @PowerUSAID says delivering services showed how “robust & secure digital public infrastructure” enabled Ukrainians to access services in a war while minimizing corruption.
She says @USAID supported in e-gov in Ukraine since 2016. “
The result: “Government in a smartphone.”
I find it encouraging to see @USAID@StateDRL rejoining international open government circles.
It’s discouraging @OpenGovPart@OGP_IRM have said so little about @WhiteHouse45@WhiteHouse acting contrary to process after @POTUS45 made a mockery of the US being in “good standing.”