Twitter USD 8 verification: The aftermath

Dimapur, Nov. 17 (EMN): Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the coveted blue tick, which previously signified a verified account of prominent personalities, journalist, sportsperson or for that matter anyone with a following, was tossed aside for an USD 8 payment, meaning anyone who paid the 8 dollars was verified.

The reasoning behind the payment based verification was to offset advertisers leaving the platform and help in revenue growth for Twitter.

In a Tweet thread, Musk informed that the price would be adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity, meaning it may cost more or less equivalent to USD 8 depending on where you live. As for India rollout, on Nov. 8, a Twitter follower asked Musk when the Twitter Blue will roll out in India, the Tesla CEO replied, “Hopefully, less than a month”.

But, ahead of the verification rollout, Twitter’s trust and safety team gave list of recommendations for Musk to understand the damaging consequences of Twitter blue debadging. One of the recommendations warned about impersonation of world leaders, advertisers, brand partners, election officials, and other high profile individuals and suffice to say, it has happened.

Ever since the rollout, countless impersonations and fake accounts of prominent personalities emerged. The damage, in terms of billions of dollars.

We look at some of the prominent fake accounts of world famous personalities, organisations,

Eli Lilly and Company, an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries had billions wiped off in its valuation after a fake verified account impersonating the company tweeted that “Insulin is free now”.

According to an estimate, the company’s stock dropped 4.37%, effectively erasing over USD 15 billion in market cap.

Lockheed Martin Corporation, an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation also faced a similar situation when an impersonating account tweeted that it will halt all weapon sales to the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel until further investigation into their record of human right abuses.

Soon after the tweet, the company’s share price dropped by about 5.5%, and its capitalisation dropped by more than USD 7 billion.

An account impersonating George W Bush, the former US President had this to tweet

The verification spree reached another peak when the parody accounts of Jesus and Satan were also verified

Meanwhile, the fake accounts of the Popes and Martin Luther King tweeted

The payment subscription system has since been suspended with users reportedly receiving an error message when applying for the verification though Twitter has not stated anything officially, but in a recent tweet on Nov. 16, Musk stated, “Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid”.

In the meantime, the world waits and watches what Twitter has in store as Musk himself tweeted that “Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months”.