Twitter Blue Verification Controversy

On April 20, 2023, Twitter (known as X since July 2023) began removing verification status for users of public interest, causing a controversy among Twitter users. The website's system was altered, allowing any individual to receive verification for a monthly fee, an act which saw significant criticism.

Background

Twitter verification

In May 2009, then-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Tony La Russa, sued Twitter after an account on the service impersonated him, alleging Twitter abetted in defaming his likeness. The lawsuit included the feed of @TonyLaRussa, a Twitter account not owned by La Russa, with the first tweet in the feed referencing the deaths of Cardinals pitchers Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock. In response, Twitter introduced a verification system known as "Verified Accounts", and settled the lawsuit with La Russa. In a blog post titled, "Not Playing Ball", then-CEO Biz Stone wrote that Twitter " ecognizesan opportunity to improve tsuser experience". The blog post provides an image of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s emergency account with a verification checkmark beside its name while naming other institutions and people that could receive the checkmark, such as well-known artists and athletes. Within days, notable individuals such as actor Ashton Kutcher and talk show host Oprah Winfrey received a blue checkmark.

In 2010, Twitter opened up verification to all users, but shut down public verification after it became inundated with requests. According to Andy Cohn, who attempted to get the Twitter account for ''The Fader'' verified in 2012, only accounts who faced repeated impersonation attempts or those who spent at least on advertisements in the last three months were eligible for verification; an impersonator of Wendi Deng Murdoch—then businessman Rupert Murdoch's wife—was able to get verified regardless. Twitter opened up verification to all users once again in July 2016, but reserved that "verification does not equal endorsement".

In November 2016, Twitter suspended prominent white nationalist Richard B. Spencer from the platform, along with several other alt-right figures. Spencer's account was then reinstated in December, with his verification status remaining intact. Twitter faced backlash in November 2017 when it verified the account of Jason Kessler, a neo-Nazi and white supremacist. The backlash forced Twitter to pause its verification program. Several days later, Twitter removed Spencer and Kessler's verification statuses. Likewise, Twitter had removed verification from ''Breitbart News'' editor Milo Yiannopoulos for violating its policies in January, signaling Twitter verification implied endorsement. Despite a lack of public verification, Twitter continued to verify accounts that provided credible information about the COVID-19 pandemic and labeled candidates in the 2018 United States elections and the 2020 United States presidential election. Twitter reintroduced public verification in May 2021, with updated guidelines in January 2021 requiring verified accounts to have a verified email address or phone number, and stating that users may lose their blue checkmark for violating Twitter's rules. The announcement came alongside a new label for automated or bot accounts and deceased users.

Twitter Blue

In June 2021, Twitter announced Twitter Blue, a subscription service granting users the ability to undo tweets before they're sent, grouping saved tweets, a "reader mode" to view replied tweets in quicker succession, and various color themes, alongside dedicated customer support. Launching at an introductory price of per month, the service increased in price in July 2022 to a month, with Twitter Blue subscribers receiving the ability to edit tweets later on.

Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk

In June 2009, business magnate Elon Musk joined Twitter, and has held an interest in the site. Musk's tweets, ranging from adoration to repudiation, have regarded the site at times. Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Twitter's suspension of then-president Donald Trump, Musk began tweeting about free speech at a more frequent rate, and focused on spam accounts more heavily. Musk became the company's largest shareholder in April 2022 with the purchase of billion shares of Twitter, or 9.2% of the company's stock volume, ahead of mutual fund company The Vanguard Group's 8.8% stake. According to ''The Washington Post'', prompted by the suspensions of conservative Christian satire website ''The Babylon Bee'' and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Musk proposed an acquisition of Twitter on April 14. On October 27, 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for billion, following a legal battle with the company.

Initial implementation of paid verification

Announcement

In October 2022, Casey Newton of ''Platformer'' reported that executives at Twitter began discussing the possibility of users being forced to pay for Twitter Blue in order to keep their verification status. Musk publicly announced that verification was "being revamped right now" after Newton's article; according to ''The Verge'', Twitter planned to increase the price of Twitter Blue from per month to per month. Users would have had 90 days to subscribe or face losing their verification status, and employees were told to implement paid verification by November 9 or risk getting fired. Upon the news that Twitter Blue would cost per month, author Stephen King expressed displeasure towards Twitter and stated that he would leave. Musk, replying to King's tweet, proposed that the service should cost instead. In a separate tweet, Musk wrote that Twitter Blue subscribers would receive priority in replies, mentions, and search, fewer advertisements, and longer audio and video.

Although paid verification was expected to be launched by November 7, the reintroduction of Twitter Blue was delayed until after the 2022 United States elections on November 9, according to a memo obtained by ''The New York Times''. The announcement of paid verification resulted in several accounts facetiously impersonating Musk, such as those of comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman, being suspended. In response, Musk announced that impersonators using Twitter Blue "will be permanently suspended". An "official" label was announced on November 8 for notable accounts. Hours after the label began rolling out, Musk tweeted that he "killed" the label.

Impersonation attempts

Despite a seven-page document written by Twitter's content moderation team, on November 9, Twitter Blue launched with verification exclusively on iOS. Upon introducing paid verification, various individuals in sports Twitter were impersonated, such as sports writer Adam Schefter and basketball player LeBron James, with tweets announcing the supposed ousting of Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels or James' trade from the Los Angeles Lakers, respectively. As impersonation accounts began appearing for Nintendo and Tesla—the latter being owned by Musk—the official label returned. Other individuals and companies impersonated include former president Donald Trump, video game company Valve, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. One account impersonating the beverage corporation PepsiCo praised the superiority of Coca-Cola. Twitter paused signups for Twitter Blue on November 11; according to a Slack message obtained by ''Platformer'' reporter Zoë Schiffer, the company paused subscriptions to deal with impersonation attempts. Musk believed that impersonation would be resolved if Apple handed over the credit card information of Twitter Blue subscribers; then head of trust and safety Yoel Roth explained that Apple would not oblige to such a request.

''The Washington Post'' published a report on November 11 detailing how reporter Geoffrey Fowler was, with permission from United States senator Ed Markey, impersonating a U.S. senator, noting that a bug in Twitter's iOS app made the checkmarks for Markey's official account and the impersonation account virtually indistinguishable. Markey, who has publicly refuted the safety of Tesla's self-driving technology, publicly debated with Musk and stated that Congress would take action against Twitter if Musk did not.

Eli Lilly and Company tweet

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act passed, requiring companies to cap the price of insulin at per month for Medicare. On November 10, a Twitter account impersonating the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company—one of the three largest manufacturers of insulin—posted a tweet stating that insulin would be made free. According to ''The Washington Post'', Twitter failed to respond to the company for several hours. The incident resulted in Eli Lilly pulling advertisements from Twitter. United States senator Bernie Sanders used the tweet to highlight the price of insulin as other users began creating satirical accounts jovially apologizing for making insulin free, with one such account writing, "Humalog is now $400. We can do this whenever we want and there's nothing you can do about it".

The identity of the user who posted the tweet remained unknown until November 22, when Sean Morrow, a 34-year-old writer for the media organization More Perfect Union, admitted to operating the account and writing the tweet. In a video, Morrow stated that he used the account of the Mothman running for the United States Senate for West Virginia, and put that the account was a parody in its biography. Morrow took the video to detail the history of insulin manufacturing and the monopolization of the insulin industry. Eli Lilly further lowered the price of insulin in March 2023.

Reintroduction of verification

On November 25, Musk announced that verification would be split into separate checkmarks for companies (in gold), government institutions (in gray), with all other entities retaining their blue checkmarks, as early as December 2. A separate tweet also stated that individuals could have a secondary logo for any organizations they may be a part of. Continuing from Musk's idea of company employees receiving an icon for their employers, Twitter announced Blue for Business on December 19. In spite of an official release, venture capital firm Craft Ventures appeared to already have the icons.

The rollout of government labels resulted in the accounts of Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and minister of foreign affairs Anniken Huitfeldt being labeled as affiliated with Nigeria. On January 5, Fowler was once again able to impersonate Markey, with Barreto Fetterman, senator John Fetterman's wife, thanking the impersonator rather than Markey himself. The report defied Musk's claim that Twitter Blue subscribers would be manually verified and shows how impersonators still persist on the platform despite phone number verification and wait times.

State-affiliated media label controversy

On April 5, 2023, the Twitter account for National Public Radio (NPR) received a label that it was "state-affiliated", despite the fact it receives less than 1% of its funding from the government; Voice of America (VOA), a state-affiliated media arm of the United States, did not receive a label. NPR CEO John Lansing condemned Twitter for the labeling. A similar label was added to Public Broadcasting Station's (PBS) Twitter account on April 8. According to PBS, the broadcaster has no intention to use its Twitter account after receiving the label. NPR announced it had quit Twitter on April 12 after the label was changed to "government-affiliated". The decision was a reversal of the company's previous treatment towards NPR, which it cited as an example of a public news organization that is not state-affiliated. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also received a government-affiliated label, but appealed to Musk. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) received a label stating it was "69% government-funded", in apparent reference to the sex position, after Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre told Musk to apply the label. The CBC is 66% government-funded, and stopped tweeting after the incident.

On April 22, Twitter dropped the state-affiliated and government-affiliated labels entirely, including for Russia's RT and China's Xinhua News and China Global Television Network (CGTN). According to Musk, the idea to drop the labels came from author Walter Isaacson. The removal of the state-affiliated label followed a change in Twitter's algorithm, in which restrictions on accounts belonging to Russian state media were lifted. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan

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