Twitter has launched its new paid subscription scheme, Twitter Blue, meaning users can now pay $11.49 to obtain a ‘blue tick’.
The coveted tick used to mean that Twitter staff had manually verified the identity of the person operating that account. Not anymore.
Cybersecurity chief quits
Within hours of Twitter Blue going live, fake accounts using the names and likenesses of famous people started popping up.
But surely it’s someone’s job to ensure this doesn’t happen, right?
Oh. The company’s cybersecurity chief just quit.
Mr Dutton joins an illustrious list of famous people that have been impersonated including Mario, Jesus Christ, Donald Trump and LeBron James.
In just a handful of the dodgy tweets to surface, fake Mario flipped the bird, Mr Trump lashed out at Elon Musk, and LeBron James announced a trade request.
In a more mean-spirited post, an account posing as pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly promised customers free insulin.
And on Friday an account purporting to be owned by former prime minister Scott Morrison got the Twitter tick of approval.
The fake Dutton account tweeted the following to a post made by Prime Minister Albanese claiming renewables are the cheapest form of new energy: “FACT CHECK: Wrong. Coal is in the ground and anyone can dig it up”.
Karl Stefanovic has also been spoofed: Today tech expert Trevor Long showed how easy it is to impersonate someone by setting up a fake Stefanovic account.
“Blue ticks on Twitter may be impersonators and that will be a risk for ministers, governments and businesses,” Mr Long said.
“Thanks for hacking me, it was enjoyable,” Stefanovic told Long.
The thing is, this isn’t all just a bit of fun. Things are getting messy at Twitter HQ, and there are real-world implications.
Move fast and break things
Many fake accounts, including the fake Dutton account, have been suspended or restricted, but their emergence indicates a flaw in Twitter’s new feature. While the accounts remained operational, some users believed them to be real.
Twitter has, until now, been a go-to source of up-to-date information during emergencies, disasters, elections and crises.
Australians have relied on it during floods, fires, a pandemic and terrorist events. Experts told The New Daily that as things stand, it would be pretty easy for someone to create a fake account posing as an official source and spread damaging misinformation during a crisis.
RMIT Professor Mark Gregory told TND that Twitter and publishers on the platform could be opening themselves up to legal action by publishing false information.
“Some of the stuff that I’ve been seeing is unacceptable, and it would be unacceptable in Australian law,” said Professor Gregory.
‘Dumb things’
“Even though Twitter is a US company, this material is also published in Australia … and in my opinion, some of what has been published could be considered to be defamatory.”
Mr Musk likes to move fast and break things (a motto coined by another tech-bro, Mark Zuckerberg), so who knows how long the current version of the blue tick will last.
“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months,” he recently tweeted.
“We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”
In response to the blue tick debacle, on Friday Mr Musk tweeted: “Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio … tricking people is not ok.”
Tweet from @elonmusk
