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Before channel 24 We already mentioned that Elon Musk promised to punish fake account holders with brutal bans. This doesn’t seem to frighten them too much because the
Before channel 24 We already mentioned that Elon Musk promised to punish fake account holders with brutal bans. This doesn’t seem to frighten them too much because the number of fake accounts from celebrities, companies and organizations is still increasing wildly and this is a real problem.
It all started when Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter and turn it into a paradise, but it turned out that the social network has become just a scammer’s paradise. Shortly after the acquisition, Musk announced changes to the paid Twitter Blue subscription. Added to this is the opportunity to get a “blue check” verification for just $8 without actually checking the authenticity of the account.
The checkmark appears almost instantly as soon as someone pays the required $8, and there are no questions asked – people don’t need to verify their identity. According to Musk, this is an effective way to fight bots, but such a dubious decision despite the warning has caused far bigger problems than the temporary bots that Musk constantly complains about.
The new “blue tick” departs sharply from Twitter’s previous verification approach, where only accounts owned by brands, public figures, governments and officials received blue ticks next to their names. In this way, the official page has been approved, which makes it easy for people to understand: this account represents a real organization, it can be trusted.
In all these cases, the verification has been confirmed by Twitter staff. The new verification process – or not – makes life easier for scammers, cybercriminals, and those who spread misinformation. They can fool people by covering themselves with a veil of legitimacy because in the understanding of most users, a blue tick means an official, verified, verified account.
It is very easy for cybercriminals to use social media as an excellent tool to target unknown victims, but when there is no clear and real way to verify identity, you open the door to fake accounts that are no doubt going to be abused by criminals looking to commit fraud. ,
– says Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor to ESET, a security company.
Immediately after the Twitter Blue verification system went live, accounts imitating people and brands emerged. Some people seemed to be testing the system, some were trolling Musk why the idea was terrible (which was later banned), while others were just making trouble.
In some cases, new accounts were used, while in others, old Twitter accounts were moved to the “blue tick” status. An account called Nintendo of America (user: @nIntendoofus) tweeted a photo of Mario showing his middle finger to people. Almost immediately, this post has become a meme that perfectly illustrates the whole situation surrounding the new policy of the social network.
Fake Nintendo Account / Screenshot
A post from an account claiming to be an ESPN analyst was shared more than 10,000 times before it was removed. The title of the account said “NOT” and it was stated in his bio that it was a parody.
Cybercriminals often try to scam people or impersonate them on social media and always try to stay one step ahead of their prey. Many scams involve convincing people that the account is genuine. Then social engineering kicks in to get people to hand over their credit card information or personal information. These types of scams continue to exist because criminals get results from them.
But now the scammers’ months of painstaking work are unnecessary because Musk gave them a great tool. It is effective, fast and reliable, and most importantly, very inexpensive.
Elon Musk said that Twitter’s $8 subscription fee will prevent unscrupulous users from creating accounts on a particularly large scale. The CEO also noted that accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue will appear above unverified accounts in search results.
In a Twitter Space Q&A session for advertisers and employees this week, Musk said he wanted to stop fake accounts and scammers “don’t have a million credit cards and phones.”
In addition to making scammers look like they’re real, many experts believe changes in verification could blur the meaning of verifying legitimate social media accounts.
The switch to buying verified accounts will likely significantly reduce users, emergency services, public services, journalists and brands’ trust in verified Twitter accounts, as Twitter is unlikely to quickly unfollow and close every new Twitter Blue verified account. imitates others.
– says Rachel Tobak, co-founder of SocialProof security.
In addition to scams, the ability to quickly create authentic-looking verified accounts can also facilitate disinformation campaigns. Russian, Chinese and Iranian state-sponsored actors have been trying to manipulate a series of online discussions for years. They can create thousands of fake accounts to propagate disinformation.
Eliza Thomas, a senior OSINT analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue specializing in disinformation and disinformation, points out: Disinformation actors, especially those linked to governments, have substantial budgets.
We’ve seen many disinformation campaigns buying web domains, spending thousands and tens of thousands of dollars on ads, mass-buying bot accounts and hiring trolls.
Thomas added.
Aspect Saved by Eliot HigginsIt would be extremely easy for the government to pay for verified accounts, among other things, said the founder of research group Bellingcat, which exposed Russian disinformation and an international spy network. The budget of the Russian Internet Research Agency, which constantly spreads disinformation, in 2018 is approximately 10 million dollars.
And in the past, government-sponsored organizations didn’t need verified tags to create information chaos. Now they have a tool that makes their job significantly easier, because all you have to do is buy a subscription and a lot more people will believe you. In the past, the Russian government’s Twitter accounts were quoted hundreds of times in the press without any verification, you can only guess what awaits us in the future.
It should be noted that the story with the paid “blue check” verification has only just begun, although it has managed to create noise and chaos.
It seems that Twitter really understands the problem created by Elon Musk’s new policy and is trying to fix it. Thus, the company added a “grey checkmark” that will now be responsible for verifying the account and its authenticity. The situation with this function is still unclear – it was first added, then removed, and now it works again.
However, due to significant turmoil, complaints, and posting of fake accounts, Twitter has currently frozen the “blue check” and is not giving it to Twitter Blue subscription holders. It remains only to observe what happens next and hope that Musk realizes the destructive nature of his decisions.
Source: 24 Tv
John Wilkes is a seasoned journalist and author at Div Bracket. He specializes in covering trending news across a wide range of topics, from politics to entertainment and everything in between.
