The Twitter Blue check was a complete disaster exactly the way everyone expected

Elon Musk’s plan to democratize Twitter verification lasted less than two days. Twitter has temporarily withdrawn new signups to Twitter Blue after the platform was overtaken by verified trolls. company Tell Employee subscriptions have been suspended “to help address impersonation issues,” according to Curriculum Zoe Schaeffer. It turns out that paid verification was a mess like almost everyone else and predicted.

At first, it looked as if Twitter had a plan to tackle the impersonation issue. Just before we roll out the new Twitter Blue app, offer a separate app “official” Badge to be attached to “Government accounts, businesses, business partners, major media, publishers, and certain public figures.” But Musk soon changed his mind, and killing The idea came a few hours after it was announced. Paid verification began Wednesday, without the label.

Unsurprisingly, things started to go wrong almost immediately. A fake Nintendo account posted a picture of Mario that turns everyone around. Fake Tony Blair retweet Fake George Bush. Pope John Paul verified chirp Conspiracy theories in a verified Martin Luther account, which was responding to a verified imitator of Pope Francis. An account masquerading as a Twitter official @verified tweet crypto hoax. LeBron’s con man said he was Request in progress trade.

Twitter responded by suspending Blue subscriptions to new accountsHowever, the move had little effect on the verified phishing deluge. Fake accounts appeared to interact with other impersonators.

One of the most Viral examples It was Eli Lilly’s verified account who tweeted “insulin free now”, prompting the real Eli Lilly to apologize For the “misleading” tweet because insulin is, in fact, not free. Then another fake Eli Lilly apologized for the actual Eli Lilly apology. An account that looks like it belongs to a hopeless Twitter Ads salesperson chirp in Musk to remove fake Eli Lilly accounts. Both of my fake Eli Lilly accounts have been suspended, but the tweets are still sending drug company shares to slope.

Musk replied that parodies accounts should be clearly described. “Deceiving people is not okay,” he said chirp. Some made half-hearted attempts to comply. A fake Tesla account transmitted by Teslareal scribbling the word “parody” on the header photo on his profile, but he continued to trolling Musk (the account is now suspended).

Meanwhile, a number of extremists and conspiracy theorists have emerged also bought Verification, including — ironically — Jason Kessler, who summoned the 2017 Twitter verification nearly four years ago. “pause” from verification. Media matters She mentioned that many of these newly verified right-wing accounts were already using it to amplify disinformation. An Arizona impersonator verified by Arizona Governor Carrie Lake’s nominee chirp That she won her race even though she hasn’t been called up yet, according to Washington Post.

By Friday morning, Twitter Blue subscriptions were no longer available on the Twitter app or website. It is unclear when it could be re-launched. And after two days he said the holder of the blue check Will be “Great Planer” Twitter confirmed It will rename the gray “official” after all for the sake of “anti-impersonation”.

But despite the constant political setbacks and the influx of impersonators, Musk was still optimistic. “Some epicly funny tweets” He said. “Today achieved the highest level of active users ever.” he is added.