Twitter’s relaunched premium service — which grants blue-check “verification” labels to anyone willing to pay $14 NZD a month — was unavailable Friday after the social media platform was flooded by a wave of imposter accounts it itself had approved.
It’s the most recent change to the service that could cause whiplash; since billionaire Elon Musk took over two weeks ago, uncertainty has become the norm.
Prior to that, the blue check was given to verified journalists, celebrities, corporations, government agencies, and other verified users of the platform in order to stop impersonation. Anyone can now obtain one as long as they own a phone, a credit card, and a monthly income of $14 NZD.
Insulin was advertised as free by a fake Twitter account registered under the updated Twitter Blue system, impersonating pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., forcing the Indianapolis company to publish an apology.
Along with impersonating the accounts of various politicians and professional athletes, the accounts of Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, and Musk’s own businesses Tesla and SpaceX were also used.
The last straw for advertisers who have suspended their Twitter advertising campaigns may be fake accounts. Musk’s rocky tenure at the helm of the platform, which resulted in the firing of half of its staff and several high-profile departures, has prompted concerns about its viability.
Even if the imposters are quickly eliminated, they can still cause significant issues.
They have created “overwhelming reputational risk for placing advertising investments on the platform,” said Lou Paskalis, longtime marketing and media executive and former Bank of America head of global media.
A picture of a platform in disarray that no media professional would risk their career by continuing to make advertising investments on—and that no governance apparatus or senior executive would condone if they did—emerges as a result of the fake “verified” brand accounts, the author continues.
Twitter now has two categories of “blue checks,” and they both appear the same, which only adds to the confusion. One includes the accounts verified before Musk took the helm.
“This account is verified because it’s noteworthy in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category,” the statement says. The other observes that Twitter Blue is subscribed to by the account.
But as of Friday at noon, subscriptions to Twitter Blue were not offered.
Musk stated on Twitter on Thursday that there were “too many corrupt legacy Blue’verification’ checkmarks existing, so there is no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months.”
The press email address for Twitter received no response.
The company’s communications team was completely destroyed by the layoffs, and since Musk took over on October 27th, Twitter has not responded to questions from The Associated Press.
On Thursday night, Twitter started labelling some well-known accounts with grey “official” tags once more. It had rolled out the labels earlier this week, only to kill them a few hours later.
They returned Thursday night, at least for some accounts — including Twitter’s own, as well as big companies like Amazon, Nike and Coca-Cola, before many vanished again.
Additionally, it didn’t seem like celebrities were receiving the “official” label.
Signups for Twitter Blue are not available after a wave of fake accounts.
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