Elon Musk took over Twitter and made one of the most confusing implementations of the platform. He started charging $8 for a ‘verification’ check mark on Twitter profiles. And even though this might be financially beneficial to the company, it creates massive anarchy on Twitter. As a result, Elon Musk gets into a clash with a senator. The one that is responsible for overseeing his companies.
The whole situation got out of hand when a Washington Post journalist made a fake account of Senator Ed Markley to prove a point. And he did prove it in the end. Now, when the verification checkmark means absolutely nothing on the platform, it is easier than ever before to impersonate someone and create confusion.
Elon Musk Gets Into A Fight On Twitter With Senator Ed Markley And Might Face A Serious Backlash
Senator Ed Markley accused the tech mogul of putting ‘profits over people’. Elon Musk implemented the $8 surcharge, allowing the spread of misinformation for the sake of making a profit.
A Washington Post journalist took a dig at Elon Musk impersonating Senator Ed Markley to prove a point. The Senator spoke to the Washington Post journalist before opening the account. Both of them agreed that it would be interesting to see what happens if they purposely open a fake account in his name.
“A Washington Post reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me. I’m asking for answers from Elon Musk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again” – Senator Ed Markey tweeted from his personal account.
In addition to addressing the issue on Twitter, Senator Ed Markey sent a personal letter to Musk, explaining the situation and demanding answers to several questions for the process of verification. He demanded an immediate answer to the questions, as the current setting of Twitter presents a massive threat for misinformation and spreading hate speech.
“Apparently due to Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone could pay $8 and impersonate someone on your platform.” – Ed Markey wrote in the personal letter to Musk. “Selling truth is dangerous and unacceptable. Twitter musk explain how this happened and how it will prevent it from happening again.”
According to Senator Ed Markey, all that a person needs, in order to create a verified fake account is a spare iPhone, a credit card, and a little creativity. Furthermore, any username could be used when creating the account, even a username that suggests the account is official. In this particular case, the Washington Post reporter named his account @realedmarkey.
“The Post reporter was able to accomplish this impersonation despite Twitter having previously verified my actual Twitter account under the handle @senmarkey.” – Senator Ed Markey told Elon Musk. “Compounding Twitter’s verification dysfunction, a pop-up stated that the fake account was verified because I was a notable person in government. Not because someone had paid for the verification blue checkmark.”
Verification blue checkmarks once suggested that the account is legitimately from the person who it claims to be. Despite this, there were numerous fake accounts emerging again. However, it was easy to tell which account is fake, and which is real. Now, with this implementation, Senator Ed Markey accuses Elon Musk of creating the ‘Wild West of social media’. Furthermore, he suggests that Elon Musk must bear some responsibility for ensuring the platform doesn’t become a ‘breeding ground for manipulation and deceit’.
Elon Musk found himself in a situation where he must answer four basic questions about the verification process. Senator Ed Markey summarized them in a personal letter.
- What was Twitter’s process for issuing paid-for blue checkmark verification of a Twitter account?
Elon Musk needs to reflect on the process for issuing verification to accounts that are allegedly presenting notable people. People in government, news, entertainment, or any other public category.
- How did the paid-for blue check verification process differ from the free verification process that preceded it?
The billionaire will need to explain the background behind his decision to implement this method for verification. Supposedly, he will need to provide additional information on how Twitter makes sure the accounts are not fake.
- How did Twitter fail to follow internal policies allowing the reported to open the fake account?
- Is Twitter planning on reintroducing a verification system?
It is uncertain if Elon Musk will even try to reply to the letter. Knowing the billionaire, he might even completely ignore the letter. However, he did reply to the Senator on Twitter.
While he acknowledged Senator Ed Markey’s call-out, Elon Musk didn’t hesitate to mock him as well.
“Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” – Elon Musk wrote. “And why does your profile photo have a mask!?”
Senator Ed Markey had enough and didn’t want to continue the conversation on Twitter, so he politely replied to Musk, informing him that one of his companies is under an FTC consent decree.
“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will.” – The Senator fired back.
Elon Musk went on making the verification checkmark available to everyone as a way of ‘democratizing’ Twitter and cutting down spam and bot accounts. However, this caused several security and privacy experts to resign from their positions at Twitter signaling that this is not as simple as Elon musk might think.
