Fake Nintendo, Valve accounts causes Elon Musk to stop Twitter Blue verification
Last Updated on: 12th November 2022, 03:35 am
After Twitter’s paid-for verification system was launched, fake accounts of distinguished individuals and companies were impersonated. Some of these accounts spread misleading content to highlight the new verification system’s issues; others are there to explicitly say that new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s plan simply doesn’t work.
Before Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion, Twitter verified accounts after these accounts met certain requirements. This definitely wasn’t a short process, indicating that accounts with the blue checkmark were authentic and notable ones.
However, with the new paid-for verification system, anyone can just pay $8 to acquire the blue checkmark without necessarily being reviewed to confirm their account’s authenticity. Despite Musk’s previous claim that this system is an effort to combat bots and spam, the change, which began Wednesday, has proven to have resulted in confusion and the proliferation of fake news just a few hours after its rollout.
Fake Nintendo, Valve Twitter accounts get ‘verified,’ spread misleading content
For video game fans, two notable fake accounts that acquired the blue checkmark include those that impersonated big companies such as Nintendo and Valve. The fake (but verified) Nintendo account even advertised an officially unannounced Super Mario Galaxy game, followed by an image of Mario giving the middle finger.
On the other hand, the fake account of Valve announced Ricochet: Neon Prime, saying:
“We’re excited to unveil Ricochet: Neon Prime, our next competitive platform, this Thursday at 10am Pacific time. Can’t wait to see you all on the grid.”
READ MORE: HOW TO DEACTIVATE YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT AFTER ELON MUSK’S BUYOUT
While the account looks like it’s the real deal, further scrutiny reveals that its Twitter handle is “valvesotfware,” with the letters ‘t’ and ‘f’ interchanged instead of “valvesoftware.” Nonetheless, this tweet revived the game for a while, having it discussed on Resetera before the information was identified as fake.
These accounts have been suspended since. However, it appears that this change in Twitter’s verification process has resulted in mass confusion and misinformation. Brian Whelan of Times Radio was even able to create a fake (but, again, verified) Donald Trump account without all the red tape, tweeting (using the fake Donald Trump account), “This is why Elon Musk’s plan doesn’t work.”
Of course, Twitter is trying to resolve this issue by going after the fake accounts, saying, “We’re not currently putting an ‘Official’ label on accounts, but we are aggressively going after impersonation and deception.”
In a tweet, Musk also expressed what he thought about the situation and said, “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.”
