Tony Blair who wants to make his comeback to power in the United Kingdom, George W. Bush who thinks “in need of killing Iraqis”… The Twitter certification for everyone against an 8 dollar per month subscription wanted by Elon Musk is already “in production” in the United States.
Result? Many users have already subscribed to this new service, have taken on the identity of prominent personalities and are flooding the social network with fake news.
Problem: it is almost impossible to distinguish, at first glance, if the tweets come from real personalities or from a smart guy who paid to get the little blue badge.
A fake LeBron James requests his transfer
This is how we were able to read this Thursday morning that a fake George W. Bush had to “to go to bed early” in anticipation of a painting class “early the next morning”. Or that the Nintendo brand and its star Mario sent the finger of honor to his followers.
The day before, several accounts posing as celebrities had hatched on the network, including a fake LeBron James, superstar basketball player for the Lakers team. The impostor with his blue tick had time to request a transfer to another team before the account was deleted.
Twitter Blue now allows users who wish, for $8 per month, to obtain the famous blue tick, a guarantee of authenticity that was previously free but reserved for governments and media personalities.
The extensively revised subscription is currently only available in the mobile application, on iPhones and in the United States.
With this new option, Elon Musk says he wants “give more power to the people” and abolish “the current system of lords and peasants, between those who have the blue tick and those who do not”.
“Appealing to Twitter users to make more money may be the right strategy, but verification isn’t the place to pay”commented Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.
“The certification is supposed to ensure the authenticity of accounts and conversations on the platform, it is not a premium tool”, she added.
.