This week whereas scrolling on X, formerly Twitter, I seen that I had reposted a sequence of TechCrunch articles. Besides, wait, no, I hadn’t.
However another person utilizing my identify had. I clicked on the profile, and there was one other Rebecca Bellan, utilizing the identical default and header images as my precise profile: me onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 and side-eye Chloe, respectively. The bio learn, “@Techcrunch senior reporter | journalist,” and it had the situation set to NY, the place I’m at present primarily based. The account was created in Could 2024.
Maybe most stunning after realizing that somebody — who? A bot?! — had created an impersonator account of me was the truth that that they had ostensibly paid to take action, as evidenced by the little blue checkmark subsequent to my identify.
When X was nonetheless Twitter, the blue checkmark would let different customers know {that a} profile had been verified as an individual of word. However since Elon Musk’s hostile takeover, that checkmark now means {that a} person has paid at the very least $8 monthly for a premium subscription that will get them entry to longer posts, fewer adverts, higher algorithmic consideration and Grok. And whereas X changed tack in April and gave the verification badge again to some customers primarily based on variety of followers, the blue checkmark may additionally imply somebody is a fan of Musk. Don’t imagine me? Simply verify all of the zealous reply guys on any of Musk’s posts.
Anyway, I’m neither a paid subscriber nor a fan.
I’m additionally not the one one who was focused with impersonation accounts. A handful of TechCrunch journalists have additionally been impersonated on the platform. A number of the accounts, together with my very own pretend one, have been suspended after being reported to X. However this solely tells us that X is actively conscious of this downside.
And the issue is that impersonation assaults like these are a lot simpler to hold out due to the degradation of X’s verification system, which really doesn’t appear to require any identification verification in any respect. Having a pay-to-play blue verify system simply begs dangerous actors and nation-states to abuse it.
Actually, X ought to have discovered its lesson by now. When Musk initially rolled out what was then known as Twitter Blue in November 2023, the characteristic was rapidly weaponized to help bad actors pretend to be celebrities, companies and authorities officers. One account impersonated pharma firm Eli Lilly and posted a pretend announcement that insulin is now free. That tweet was seen tens of millions of instances earlier than it was eliminated, and the corporate’s inventory took a success in consequence.
One other account pretended to be basketball star LeBron James and posted that he was formally asking for a commerce from the Lakers crew. One other posed as Connor McDavid and introduced that the hockey participant’s contract had been purchased by the New York Islanders.
The accounts pretending to be TechCrunch journalists have been, up to now, benign. All they’ve finished is repost content material that actually any considered one of us might need reposted anyway. This implies that, reasonably than notably malicious actors, the accounts had been possible created by bots.
We’ve been masking X’s Verified user bot problem for a while. The irony is that Musk steered that forcing customers to pay for verification would really weed out the bots on the platform, however clearly that’s not the case.
For individuals who have been impersonated, you possibly can report it to X, which can make you do a third-party verification that includes importing images of your government-issued ID and a selfie. I additionally requested co-workers, associates and followers to report the impersonation to X on my behalf, which can have expedited the method.
X didn’t reply to TechCrunch to offer touch upon what number of of its customers may really be bots, why this downside continues to be occurring, or what the platform is doing to unravel it.
