Twitter users have criticised the social media platform's new 'blue tick' system after a user set up a fake account pretending to be money saving expert Martin Lewis.
Twitter, which was taken over by Elon Musk in October, confirmed it would be "winding down" its former verification programme from April 1, in which users could apply for a blue tick on their profile if they were a "notable" account such as a celebrity, politician or company. Instead, the platform said that people would need to be subscribed to Twitter Blue in order to get the checkmark, which costs £11 per month.
Some users raised concerns that the new system could lead to confusion when it comes to identifying trusted sources of information on Twitter - something which fraudsters could take advantage of. The new criteria listed for the new blue tick system includes being "non-deceptive", such as no recent changes having been made to a user's profile photo or username and no signs of being "misleading" - but this does not appear to have deterred some scammers from purchasing a blue tick to impersonating notable figures.
