verification

New Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before buying a subscription • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 18, 2022Posted in Apps, elon buys twitter, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

Twitter has published a policy change saying that newly-created Twitter accounts will have to wait 90 days before being allowed to subscribe to the new Twitter Blue plan and get verified. This is likely to avoid impersonation and spam from verified accounts. “Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. We may also impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future at our discretion without notice,” the company said on its FAQ page about Twitter Blue. Prior to this, the Elon Musk-led company just said that new accounts created after November 9 won’t be able to purchase the $8 Twitter subscription plan. Twitter Blue terms on Nov 10 noting accounts created after Nov 9 can’t sign up for Twitter Blue. Image Credits: Twitter The old terms were published during the rushed rollout of Twitter Blue, which caused havoc and a barrage of verified accounts started impersonating brands, celebrities, and athletes. Because of fake verified accounts tweeting misinformation, shares of companies like Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin took a dip. To avoid impersonation, the company has prohibited verified users from changing their names. Earlier this week, Musk said that paid accounts will lose the verified checkmark until the social network confirms that the new name follows its rules. However, the company hasn’t made any formal policy around that. With new release, changing your verified name will cause loss of checkmark until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022 Twitter is in the soup with the new paid plan. On the one hand, Musk has promised that subscribers will get prominence on the notification tab, replies, and searches — the company briefly moved the verified notification tab’s position to place it before all notifications too. On the other hand, after assessing the initial results from the verification rollout, it clearly has to thwart spam and impersonation to prevent more advertisers from leaving the platform. As a result, Musk paused the rollout of Twitter Blue last week. He also promised to relaunch the relaunched Twitter Blue program on November 29, but in Elonverse things can change rather quickly.

Have you tried turning it off and on again, Elon? • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon, elon buys twitter, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

A few days ago, new Twitter owner Elon Musk said that the company will try a lot of dumb things in the coming days. And that seems to be the product strategy of the company — even if it causes utter chaos all around. It’s a tough time for anyone keeping tabs on changes at the social network because anything can flip anytime without warning. Blinked a few times? Something has changed. Went to make coffee? A lot has changed. Went to sleep? Welcome to a new world. Earlier this week, Twitter launched its grey-colored official checkmark for notable accounts like companies and politicians. This was meant to be a second layer of identification after Musk declared that everyone paying $8 a month will get the original blue check mark. But within hours of the launch, he “killed it.” On the other hand, the company’s product manager Esther Crawford clarified that the grey “Official” labels are “still going out” as a part of the new Twitter Blue product. As of this morning on Friday, The official check mark is back (kinda) — but to a limited number of accounts. There is no clarity on how this is being rolled out. Beat this plot, Christopher Nolan. Then there is the new $8 Twitter Blue plan, which Musk thinks is the savior of Twitter (and possibly humanity). It began rolling out to iOS users in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. The only feature it currently has is the blue checkmark, and yes, new users can’t sign up for it. After this was rolled out, a bunch of accounts started to troll brands, athletes, and officials making it look like they are tweeting from official accounts. Despite several bans and blocks, many accounts are still spreading misinformation. A lot of these tweets are getting thousands of likes and retweets. Until now, we don’t know of any grave consequences but this can cause a lot of damage. Only if Twitter had strong leaders in security, legal, comms, and trust and safety teams. Twitter has changed its policy about parody accounts saying that they should specify this in both their names and bio to avoid impersonation. Notably, the language used in these policy changes is crude and vague. At the time of writing, Twitter seems to have turned off Twitter Blue subscriptions across the globe. As app researcher Jane Manchun Wong noted, the company is not letting users subscribe to this new plan. This could be a result of a premature rollout in countries like India, and it could also be another “killed it.” Maybe by the time you’re reading this, it might be available again who knows? There is a lot happening on Twitter at breakneck speed. New policy pages are popping up without corresponding features being available on the app. The company is probably rolling out changes to production directly from the development environment. Timelines are breaking. There are tons of bugs on the platform. Spam has increased. Musk has called off remote work and said the company could go bankrupt. Hoards of executives have left. But everything is fine, and Twitter is the most interesting place on earth.

Musk flip-flops on Twitter verification — brings back (some) ‘Official’ badges (in some parts of the world) • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, Social, Twitter, verificationNo Comments

Strap back in for another Musk-Twitter U-turn: After a wave of impersonation chaos that hit a number of high profile brands and celebrities in recent hours, including an account pretending to be pharma giant Eli Lilly tweeting that insulin in “now free” — surely cooling the last embers of any advertiser ardour for the social media platform — Twitter’s new billionaire owner, Elon Musk, seems to have had another rethink as it appears that an extra layer of “Official” verification has been brought back. Just, er, it depends on where you’re viewing the platform from. (Quick reminder: After the Twitter owner/chaos edgelord’s decision on taking over to devalue Twitter’s legacy ‘blue check’ verification system — by opening it up to anyone who’ll pay him $8 — some of the sane people still left at the company (following Musk’s 50% headcount cull) apparently tried keep up with the madness by rushing out the grey check ‘Official’ badge layer of verification that was applied to some of the legacy verified Twitter accounts (including, briefly, @ZebethMedia). But a few hours later the badges had gone and Musk tweeted that he’d “killed it”.) The Verge spotted the re-reversal (if we can put it that way) earlier, writing that “brands such as Coca-Cola, Twitter, Wired, and Ars Technica have the new-old gray checks”. ZebethMedia’s account has also been re-badged “Official”. However, at the time of typing (and lord knows what might happen in an hour or two at Musk-Twitter), the truth looks a little, uh, greyer — because these returned “Official” badges/grey check marks are not always visible, depending on where in the world you’re looking at Twitter. For eg, if you’re looking at ZebethMedia’s Twitter account with an IP address inside the US the “Official” stamp is visible (below, top). However in some locations outside the US (including the UK and Spain) the verification badge is missing (for now). Although a colleague in India was able to see the Official stamp on our account. So, er, fresh chaos reigns! Now you see it officially badged (top, US IP), now you don’t (above, UK IP)… (Natasha Lomas/ZebethMedia) Is this ‘regional Official verification’ another Musk joke now that he has his hands on the Twitter steering wheel — perhaps aimed at trolling mainstream media? Or is this just a slow global rollout of the U-turn, given he liquidated half the staff and a bunch more have been walking out the door. Frankly, who tf knows. We can’t confirm officially with the company because Twitter sacked its comms department and messages to the press email and individuals still working at Twitter since Musk took over have been ignored. What else is coming? It’s anyone’s guess but Musk tweeted recently (in reply to a Twitter user called “BiasedGirl”) to imply that Official verification status won’t be universally granted to legacy-verified Twitter users — saying: “Far too many corrupt legacy Blue “verification” checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months”. Far too many corrupt legacy Blue “verification” checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2022 In another recent emission from the previously self-styled Chief Twit, Musk has also stipulated that “parody impersonation” accounts must clearly label themselves as such in their name, not just in their Twitter bio. “Basically, tricking people is no ok,” he added. Advertisers will surely be flocking back to a version of Twitter that’s flooded with verified parody impersonation accounts whose priority tweets trashing their brands are flooding the feeds of the remaining, very confused users. Not. To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022

Twitter begins to roll out grey checkmarks for high-profile accounts • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Apps, grey checkmark, Social, social media, Twitter, verificationNo Comments

A day after announcing that it’d denote high-profile accounts in a way distinctive from the blue checkmark now available to all Twitter Blue subscribers, Twitter has begun to roll out new badges that denote particular categories of official accounts, including government accounts, major media outlets and some public figures. The move is an attempt to safeguard against information spreading and impersonation on the platform as Twitter grapples with the fallout of expanding eligibility for its blue checkmark, which was previously reserved for vetted, expressly-ID-verified Twitter users. The new badges — a grey checkmark beneath the old blue verification checkmark — designate accounts as “Official,” in line with what app researcher Nima Owji revealed less than a week ago in Twitter’s public code. Accounts including ZebethMedia’s and several government officials, among them U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), show the grey check as of this morning. But from a cursory search, there doesn’t appear to be much rhyme or reason to how the badges have been applied. For example, The Wall Street Journal’s account initially didn’t have a grey badge; The Information’s still doesn’t. Nor does Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s. Image Credits: Twitter Those oversights will be addressed in the coming days presumably — Twitter no doubt has thousands, if not millions, of high-profile accounts to comb through and vet. It’s work it made for itself — as alluded to earlier, the recently-launched Twitter Blue plan that grants subscribers a blue checkmark doesn’t include ID verification, a flaw Twitter users including comedians Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin exploited in the past week to show how easy it is to pose as another account. Silverman, Griffin and others who created satirical handles were banned following Musk’s unilateral decision over the weekend to permanently bar from the platform impersonators who don’t make it clear that they’re engaging in parody.

Twitter safety head suggests further ‘identity verification’ beyond paid verification may later be required • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 8, 2022Posted in Elon Musk, identity, Privacy, Social, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

Twitter’s head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth admitted in a Twitter thread that the company may have to further invest in “identity verification” that goes beyond the paid verification system that will accompany its revamped Twitter Blue subscription. Under Elon Musk, Twitter has rushed to release a new version of its Twitter Blue subscription whose key selling point will be the ability to purchase a verification badge by paying $7.99 per month. This change is meant to make Twitter verification more accessible to users who previously couldn’t get verified under Twitter’s old system, which only doled out the coveted blue-and-white badge to public figures, celebs, politicians, journalists, and other high-profile individuals. Twitter’s prior system vetted who received the checkmark through an internal process that would confirm the person was who they said they were, so other users on Twitter could be assured of that public figure’s identity. Now, Twitter seems to realize that real identity verification — the kind that can’t be bought for $8, that is — actually has its advantages. But it’s unclear where Twitter would draw the line in terms of who would require their identities to be further verified or how that would be accomplished. In a thread where Roth attempted to explain Twitter’s differing policies around parody (which is permitted), and impersonation (which is not), he also detailed how the company would tackle a situation where a number of verified, blue-badged accounts engaged in impersonation. This led to him sharing his thoughts about identity verification on Twitter, as well. Verification! Impersonation! Twitter Blue! There’s a lot going on around identity on Twitter — let’s break down what our policies are, and some of the big questions we still need to answer… — Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022 The thread came about because large-scale impersonation is something that recently happened to Elon Musk himself. This week, a number of verified celebrities appropriated Musk’s screen name and profile picture to troll him. Musk responded by announcing a ban on any accounts pretending to be someone else and even booted one of the impersonators — comedian Kathy Griffin — off of Twitter entirely. (She later returned to the platform by using her late mother’s Twitter account.) Roth said that going forward, Twitter will deal with impersonation conducted by verified users as it has in the past — it would suspend those accounts engaging in the practice. When the new Twitter Blue subscription launches publicly, however, impersonation could become more difficult to enforce if there’s an increase in verified users for Twitter to keep its eye on. To address this, Roth said that Twitter will “ramp up proactive review of Blue Verified accounts that show signs of impersonating another user,” and then suspend them, if found. He also called for Twitter users to also report accounts engaged in impersonation. Of course, Roth’s Trust & Safety team has seen layoffs following Musk’s Twitter takeover, potentially making such enforcement a challenge. While the exec claimed that his team only saw 15% cuts, compared with 50% cuts for Twitter overall, it’s clear that many teams that played vital roles around managing misinformation on the service were impacted – including those that dealt with election integrity and public policy. It’s not understood how well the newly under-staffed teams would be able to keep up if a large number of users decided to engage in impersonation after becoming verified. Because of the potential for abuse, Twitter decided to delay the rollout of the revamped Twitter Blue system until after the U.S. midterms elections on Tuesday, The New York Times reported this weekend and Roth has now confirmed. What’s more, is that Roth seems to admit that simply asking users to pay for their blue badge isn’t a very robust form of identity verification and that Twitter may need to do more in this area in the future. (You know…like it used to, back when verification meant something more than “I have $8!”). Roth explained Twitter’s older system made verification both a signal of authenticity (you are who you say you are) and notability, meaning you’re important in some way. The exec said he supports getting rid of notability and instead focusing on “proof-of-humanness” — something that the $8 paid subscription feed could help with as it could weed out spammers and bad actors who don’t want to pay or go through the fraud checks involved with in-app purchases on the major app stores. However, Roth hinted that paid verification alone cannot work to verify identities entirely, suggesting that Twitter will need to do more work on this front in the future. “Long-term, I think we need to invest more in identity verification as a complement to proof-of-humanness,” wrote Roth. “Paid Verification is a strong (not perfect) signal of humanness, which helps fight bots and spam. But that’s not the same thing as identity verification,” he said. Roth didn’t go into further detail about what Twitter may need to do differently beyond paid verification through Blue to accomplish identity verification. Long-term, I think we need to invest more in identity verification as a complement to proof-of-humanness. Paid Verification is a strong (not perfect) signal of humanness, which helps fight bots and spam. But that’s not the same thing as identity verification. — Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022 His statement, however, raises questions about what Twitter could have in mind here. Today, a number of social networks have begun to embrace facial recognition and A.I. to verify their users, which has raised privacy concerns. Instagram, for example, uses A.I. to scan “happy birthday” posts to see if a child may have lied about their age at sign-up. Yubo is asking all the users on its platform to verify their age with a facial scan. While those methods are focused on making sure minors haven’t lied about their ages on the platform, they could be put to use for other purposes. Video, in particular, comes in handy for identity verification — even Amazon was

Twitter said to delay verification check mark rollout until after US midterm elections • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in election security, Elon Musk, Social, Startups, Twitter, twitter blue, verificationNo Comments

Twitter is reportedly delaying the rollout of verification check marks to subscribers as the social network attempts to steer clear of possible impact to Tuesday’s midterm elections. The Elon Musk-owned social media company had planned to rollout the revamped version of its subscription service, Twitter Blue, on Monday. The firm started testing the new features on Saturday, according to an app update note. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The reported move to delay the rollout of verification badges comes just days before the U.S. midterm elections, with polls closing on November 8. The New York Times reports that the move was aimed at limiting the potential fallout of verified users impersonating political or government figures, such as President Biden, or news outlets claiming false results that may discourage others from voting. Jen Easterly, the director of CISA, the U.S. government agency tasked with overseeing election security and protecting voting infrastructure, said last week that the agency it found “no information credible or specific about efforts to disrupt or compromise,” but warned of the ongoing risks that disinformation campaigns sown by foreign actors aimed at undermining confidence in the elections system. Security experts like Chris Krebs, the former CISA director who was fired by President Trump for refuting false claims of election fraud, warned that Twitter’s new verification rules would be a “major risk” ahead of the midterm elections. At the time of writing, several verified users were impersonating Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, despite the risk of having their accounts suspended for impersonation. The revamped Twitter Blue, which will cost $7.99 a month in the U.S., includes a range of new features including the coveted blue check mark to anyone who subscribes as well as cuts down the number of ads served to them on the platform. Musk is betting on turning the subscription service into a major revenue source for Twitter, which he acquired last month for $44 billion. Musk financed $13 billion for the purchase from banks and needs to pay more than $1 billion a year in interest payments. The company began cutting costs earlier this week, laying off roughly half its workforce, or about 3,700 jobs. In a series of tweets earlier this weekend, Musk claimed the company’s revamped Twitter Blue “can beat” the ad-revenue YouTube offers to creators, and that he was also working on fixing the search functionality on Twitter. Twitter will soon allow users to attach long-form texts to tweets, he said. Twitter plans to roll out the revamped Twitter Blue to subscribers in many markets in the coming months. In response to a tweet, Musk said he is hopeful that Twitter Blue will roll out to users in India “in less than a month.”

Twitter’s app has only generated $6.4M in consumer spending to date • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon Musk, op-ed, Social, Twitter, verificationNo Comments

Elon Musk has a new plan to generate revenue for Twitter. Reportedly, the social media company’s new owner intends to revamp the Twitter Blue premium subscription, currently an optional $4.99 per month for a handful of perks, by upping the price to $19.99 per month while giving subscribers the coveted verification badge. While this plan is problematic for a number of reasons — buying verification devalues it, removing verification from existing users who can’t pay, like journalists and various notable figures, will aid the spread of misinformation — it’s also worth noting that Twitter Blue as it stands today has not been a success. The subscription itself is certainly due for a revamp — just not a completely misguided, ill-thought-out revamp like this. Launched in June 2021, initially in Canada and Australia, before expanding to the U.S. and New Zealand that November, Twitter Blue was meant to help the social media platform diversify its revenue and reduce its reliance on advertisers, who today account for more than 90% of Twitter’s total revenue. The idea with Blue has been to entice Twitter’s heaviest users — its power users — to pay a small monthly fee in order to gain access to a handful of exclusive features such as tools to organize bookmarks, the ability to read news articles without ads, custom icons and navigation, early access to new features, a way to quickly fix a typo, and most recently, the long-awaited Edit button. But so far, none of these options have offered a strong enough incentive to generate significant revenue for Twitter. If anything, Twitter users believe the Edit button should be a feature of the site itself, not an exclusive, paid-only option. And they’ve protested this decision by collectively not jumping to sign up for Twitter Blue, app store data indicates. What’s more, Twitter has oddly chosen at times to roll out new, in-demand features to non-subscribers first instead of to Twitter Blue’s paying customer base, as had been promised. For example, when Twitter this month expanded access to its experimental Status feature, which lets users tag tweets with a sentiment like “Don’t @ me,” “spoiler alert,” “breaking news,” and more, it didn’t include the option in Twitter Blue. That meant paid Twitter users had to watch as a random subset of Twitter’s user base, including many free users, got to play with a fun, new addition to Twitter they couldn’t use. A truly bizarre choice on the company’s part, and one that misunderstands what its power users value. The lack of demand for Twitter Blue can be seen in the insignificant amount of revenue it’s managed to pull in to date. According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Twitter’s mobile app has only seen approximately $6.4 million in worldwide consumer spending to date. By comparison, Twitter’s annual revenue in 2021 was $5.08 billion. In the second quarter of this year, Twitter generated $1.18 billion in revenue, $1.08 billion of which was from advertising. (Twitter also generates revenue from data licensing and other sources, so even the difference between these two figures can’t be chalked up to subscriptions alone). Of course, it’s impossible to tell from third-party data exactly how much consumer spending in the Twitter app was directed at Twitter Blue specifically, as Twitter also offered in-app purchases for “Ticketed Spaces” — that is, paid entry into a special event as a part of Twitter’s live audio streaming product. But we can estimate that Ticketed Spaces revenue was only a small fraction of that total, if anything at all, as Twitter found that feature had seen so little adoption it decided to shut it down last month, Twitter recently confirmed to ZebethMedia. Sensor Tower additionally noted that the Twitter Blue monthly subscription was the top in-app purchase, indicating that likely the bulk of the in-app consumer spending comes from Blue subscribers, not those paying for the virtually unused Ticketed Spaces feature. Twitter Blue’s lack of traction isn’t just a symptom of an app with a small user base. Year to date, the company has seen 153 million worldwide installs, slightly down by 3% over the 158 million seen during the same period last year (Jan. 1 through Oct. 27), Sensor Tower said. As of Q2 2022, Twitter had 237.8 million monetizable daily active users (mDAUs), it said during earnings. Meanwhile, another social app with a similar subscription model is far outpacing Twitter Blue, despite being live for only a few months. Snapchat also launched its first premium subscription offering this year with Snapchat+. Like Twitter Blue, the $3.99 per month Snapchat+ subscription (cheaper than Blue) is aimed at the app’s power users and offers its own set of exclusive perks. Snapchat+ subscribers today can change the app icon, see who rewatched their Stories, pin someone as their ‘Best Friend,’ change the visibility duration of their Stories, use custom notification sounds, and much more. It’s a good comp for how a social subscription offering could work, if fairly successful. As of Q3 2022, Snapchat+ reached over 1.5 million paying subscribers across more than 170 countries, the company said. Following its June 29, 2022 launch, Sensor Tower data indicates Snapchat+ has generated a little more than $28 million in worldwide consumer spending. It’s also attracting users who are willing to commit to paying for longer periods of time. The Snapchat+ monthly subscription is the top in-app purchase, but the second most popular option is the annual subscription, the firm noted. In other words, in roughly 4 months’ time, Snapchat+ pulled in more than quadruple the revenue that Twitter Blue has over a 17-month period. Even accounting for the fact that Snapchat has 363 million daily active users to Twitter’s 237.8 million (though yes, a slightly different metric as Twitter only counts users who can view its ads — mDAUs, not DAUs), it’s clear that Twitter Blue has not been a smashing success. So, in a sense, Musk would not be wrong to suggest that Twitter Blue needs a

Elon Musk is revamping Twitter’s verification system — and it might involve a monthly fee • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Apps, Elon Musk, Twitter, verificationNo Comments

Twitter’s verification program has always been a complicated and controversial affair. The company has paused and resumed the application process many times to make it more streamlined. In the Elon Musk ownership era, the social media company could be looking to flip the script around verification: pay $20 per month and you will get a verified badge. According to a report from The Verge, the company is looking to introduce a new and more expensive version of Twitter Blue — the platform’s paid plan — that will cost $19.99 per month and give its users a verified badge. Currently, Twitter Blue costs $4.99 per month in the U.S and is available in other geographies like New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. The report noted that Twitter is rushing to launch this new subscription plan by November 7. What’s more shocking is that the social network is planning to remove verification badges from current holders if they don’t pay for Twitter Blue within 90 days. Given that verified users are present all across the world, it’s hard to enforce this rule unless the subscription program becomes available globally. In May, the New York Times reported that Musk presented a pitch deck to Twitter investors with goals ranging from increased subscriber revenue to achieving 69 million Twitter Blue users by 2025. These early changes to Twitter’s paid plan might be a step to get to that mark. Twitter’s “Chief Twit” Musk didn’t really give out the details of the new program but he replied to a conversation between spaceflight photographer John Kraus and a16z partner, Sriram Krishnan, that the verification process is being revamped. The whole verification process is being revamped right now — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022 $20 sounds like a lot of money just to get a verified badge and many folks like Kara Swisher are not ready to pay that amount. A poll by investor Jason Calacanis — to which Musk replied “interesting” — also has a majority of the people saying no to paying any amount for verification. The central point of the verification program was to identify genuine profiles of political leaders, celebrities, researchers, and journalists so users don’t fall for the information posted by fake accounts. If the new verification process goes through, it might be a free-for-all where any paid user can pretend to be a person of prominence for a while and spread misinformation. But we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Seven days is a long time in Elonverse and he might come up with a different verification tactic altogether.