Fake accounts pop up as Twitter removes check marks from verified users

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- This week, traditional Twitter verification came to an end and legacy accounts lost their check marks. This included celebrities, news outlets, journalists, politicians and even government agencies.

Now, anyone who pays a subscription fee can get their account Twitter verified. Some say this defeats the purpose of verification.

"It's good to have a check mark because it means people can trust you. I wasn't a big fan of making check marks something you can buy because then literally anyone can have a checkmark, so what's the point?" said Charlie Bock.

This is all part of a plan to increase revenue following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company. Since Twitter removed legacy check marks, there have already been reports of fake accounts popping up for people like Hilary Clinton, and even the State of New York just to name a few. Twitter has since removed the imposters but there are concerns that they won't be able to keep up with fake accounts in the long run.

"In terms of political figures or corporations, not having those check marks breeds chaos," said Bock. "Messing with the integrity of the verification system could have negative impacts when it comes to national emergencies or when government agencies need to get important information out to the public quickly.

There is also concern about people becoming more vulnerable to being scammed via Twitter. "There's even older people getting on social media now that will be more confused on how to use it or who they're talking to," said Jacqueline Rodriguez.

Dietram Scheufele is an expert in social media, misinformation and science technology at UW-Madison.

"The verification check mark also informs the underlying algorisms so that means that as certain tweets show up higher or lower on our timelines, that depends on verification," he said.

Scheufele says if you continue to use Twitter, always fact check tweets and curate your feed to only include accounts you know you can trust.

Only time will tell what long-term impact this move could have on the social network. "Platforms come and go and Twitter is probably not immune from that," said Scheufele.