The popularity of Musk’s Twitter is a scammer’s paradise
Twitter Blue: Where Are We Going? The Problems with Pay-Full-Verification, and a Warning from Musk on “Bankruptcy”
The changes would update an existing paid Twitter feature known as “Twitter Blue, which currently costs $4.99 a month and is available in four countries including the United States, to include the verification feature. According to internal Twitter planning documents viewed by CNN, it appears the pay-for-verification feature would only be rolled out in those four countries to start and would be priced at $19.99 a month.
The paid verification feature’s rocky rollout attracted widespread criticism from misinformation experts who had warned it would make identifying trustworthy information much more difficult, particularly in the critical period following the US midterm elections. Even some of Musk’s fellow high-powered users of the platform had tough feedback.
The growing chaos over fake accounts and 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 were 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 Twitter now appears to be on the brink, a point Musk himself seemed to concede on Thursday by reportedly telling employees that bankruptcy could be on the horizon (though it’s far from the first time he’s warned about bankruptcy at one of his companies).
When Musk first conceived of the plan to let people buy the once-coveted and restricted blue checkmarks, he was met with internal resistance from Twitter’s trust and safety experts. They feared the move would be weaponized by those looking to spread disinformation, including repressive regimes hoping to disseminate propaganda.
The trolling activity comes in the wake of Musk purchasing the company and pledging to restore the accounts of users who were previously banned from the platform, most notably former President Donald Trump. Musk plans to limit the company’s content restrictions and requires paid subscription for account verification.
Every social network produces a unique posting style, and Twitter’s design incentivizes something slightly paradoxical: it’s one part newswire, one part nonsense. On the other hand, if you want to know about anything from customer service complaints to hurricanes, and if a politician or business is going to make an announcement about it, you have to go to their website and read what they have to say. On the other, it’s the home of @horse_ebooks, Weird Twitter, a plethora of pseudonymous crypto evangelists and fandom stans, the Gorilla Channel tweet, and too many parody accounts to list. The first category is based on the default-public feed and rapid-fire text-snippet format as well as how easy it can be to create accounts that are not tied to a real name or face.
At their best, these two Twitter styles are complementary. The serious nature of Newswire social media heightens the humor and absurdity of Nonsense Social Media, and the style of Nonsense Social Media bleeds into Newswire Social Media, like turning government consumer protection agencies into memelords. The fake North Korean propaganda feed, called DPRK News, which fooled several news outlets, has room for the occasional dose of chaos.
Why the Musk Plan Hasn’t Been Done? Defending Accountability in the Elliptic Sector with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+
All of which might sound like an argument for Musk’s new plan. It is not necessary to pay for that sense of trust if you are a person like Bey or McDonald’s.
But privately, Musk’s critics have said that the billionaire doesn’t care about accountability even after the Federal Trade Commission warned that it is monitoring recent developments at Twitter with deep concern.
Promises that it hasn’t kept yet are part of the efforts. The company has an announcement on its website that lists some of the benefits of a blue account such as getting a checkmark, being prioritized in conversations, and seeing half as many ads. Those last two, however, haven’t actually rolled out yet. When you join the service, they are still listed as “coming soon.”
Jerome Powell’s Fed-fighting sends stocks plunging in the wake of Fed policymaking – his words on the Fed meeting before the Bell
A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Are you not a subscriber? There is a sign up link right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.
The Federal Reserve will hold a meeting in December. Fed officials say they will use hard economic data to make their next decision, just like analysts, but they can speculate all they want.
That means key housing, labor, and inflation reports will likely have outsized effects on the market as investors speculate about what they might mean for the future of interest rates.
What’s happening? No one can move markets like Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — with just a few words on Wednesday he crushed investors’ hopes of an interest rate pivot and sent stocks plunging. Powell said the Fed had some ways to go in its fight against inflation. It is too early to think about pausing in my opinion.
Inflation will not fall back until next year according to the central bank. Lawmakers said that it would require more interest rate hikes.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html
Implications of the September Employment Counts for the US Economy and Primordial Peculiar Price of Oil and Food in the First Month of the Fed Year
The government is expected to show the economy added another 200,000 jobs in October, but it is still a very solid number as demand for employment continues to exceed supply.
That can mean more inflation. Businesses are able to charge more for their goods and services when they pay higher wages. hourly wage growth will be looked at by the Fed. In September, wages rose by 5% from a year ago.
There is a possible upside: Another jobs report in December is expected ahead of the Fed meeting. If both reports show a downward trajectory in employment, that could be enough to placate Fed officials, even if the unemployment rate remains historically low.
Core CPI prices, which exclude oil and food, rose 0.6% in September month-over-month, matching August’s pace and coming in well above expectations of a 0.4% increase, not a great sign for the Fed. Analysts think there will be a large increase in October.
Consumer prices in the US are reflected in PCE. The Fed believes the measure is more accurate than CPI because it accounts for a wider range of purchases from a broader range of buyers.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html
The Bank of England, Twitter, and Inflation: How the Feds fought to Save the Economy and Protect the Employees on Twitter
One area of the economy that has been impacted by the Feds fight to fight inflation is the housing market.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.95% last week, up from 3.09% just a year ago, and elevated borrowing costs are leading to a decline in demand.
Powell said that the housing market was overheated after the swine flu because of low rates and increased demand. That is where the biggest effect of our policies is.
The Bank of England raised its interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point in an effort to fight inflation, the biggest hike in 33 years.
A two-year recession would be longer than the one that followed the 2008 global financial crisis, though the Bank of England said that any declines in GDP heading into 2024 would likely be relatively small.
Several Twitter employees have already filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the layoffs violate the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The email added that “to help ensure the safety” of employees and Twitter’s systems, the company’s offices “will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended.”
The WARN Act requires any company with over 100 employees to give 60 days’ written notice if it intends to cut 50 jobs or more at a “single site of employment.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html
Twitter is not a free for all hellscape: Elon Musk’s apology after the Twitter merger filed with the Cosmic Microwave Radio Network
The company filing states that all previous members of Twitter’s board, including recently ousted CEO Parag Agrawal and chairman Bret Taylor, are no longer directors “in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.” That makes Musk, according to the filing, “the sole director of Twitter.”
The billionaire who is the world’s richest man used an expletive to say that the current system of lords and peasants on the internet doesn’t measure up. He said that power to the people was needed. Blue for $8/month.”
Advertisers hit pause: Elon Musk wrote an open letter to advertisers just hours before cementing his acquisition of Twitter, explaining that he didn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape.” The advertising industry, which makes up the vast majority of the business, appears to have been reassured by that attempt.
The decision to push back the new feature comes one day after the platform launched an updated version of its iOS app that promises to allow users who pay a monthly subscription fee to get a blue checkmark on their profiles, a feature that CEO Elon Musk has proposed as a way to fight spam on the platform.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted that, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.” A name change on the social network will cause a temporary loss of verified checkmark.
Scammers on Twitter: The story of a Kenya Airways executive who changed her Twitter account and apologized for her ill-reputed Twitter account
“I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day,” Silverman tweeted Saturday. Her account has retweeted posts in support of Democrats.
Silverman’s account was labeled as “temporarily restricted” Sunday, with a warning that “there has been some unusual activity from this account” shown to visitors before clicking through to the profile. The comedian changed her account back to its normal form with her name and image on it.
The TV actress changed her account name to that of the CEO of the micro-Blogging site. Scammers would have a harder time impersonating you. That no longer applies. Good luck out there! She replied to the follower who questioned how the check mark was no longer needed, writing that they could buy a blue checkmark for $7 a month without checking their identity.
After changing her profile name to Musk, she took to the social network to support Democratic candidates.
Additionally, Musk said Twitter users will no longer receive warning before being suspended. “This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue,” he tweeted.
In recent months, Musk has shared conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi, called Democrats the party of “division & hate,” compared Twitter’s former CEO to Joseph Stalin and warned that “the woke mind virus will destroy civilization.”
Within minutes, multiple Twitter accounts claiming to be Kenya Airways tweeted him. All of them offered help, but none of them appeared official. Clicking on their profiles raised red flags, as the accounts used a logo and slogan. “Most of their messages were well crafted,” Murphy says. “However, the low number of followers coupled with the spelling errors or odd choice of characters in their actual Twitter handles was the main giveaway.” The accounts were called “@_kenyaairways” and it was linked to the company.
Cybercriminals use social media as a good way to target unbeknown victims, but when there is no legitimate way to check identities, they open up a path to impersonated accounts, which will no doubt be abused by threat actors in the search of a con.
One of the world’s most influential social networks has laid off half its workforce, alienated powerful advertisers, blown up key aspects of its product, and launched other features to compensate for it in the past week alone.
It is a reversal of fortunes not just for Musk, but for the company as well, and for a platform used by some of the most powerful people on the planet.
Twitter Blue: Charged with the FTC for Putting an Approximate Coupon on a Social Media Account? An Employee Comments on Musk’s Twitter Critique
The new Twitter Blue subscription service will cost $8 per month for users that subscribe via the web platform and $11 per month for those who subscribe on the iOS app, according to a tweet from Esther Crawford, the Twitter product head leading the subscription service effort. Musk railed against Apple for tacking on a 30% app transaction fee and it looks like the higher price point is an attempt to account for it.
The gray badges had been launched as a way to allow users to differentiate between accounts that had paid for blue check marks and those that had been branded by celebrities. Musk killed the feature after hours, forcing subordinates to explain the reversal.
We aren’t putting an official label on accounts yet but we are aggressive in our pursuit of impersonation and deception.
“@elonmusk, from one entrepreneur to another, for when you have your customer service hat on. Mark Cuban said, “I just spent too much time muting all the newly purchased checkmark signatures in an attempt to make my verified mentions useful again.”
“Bottom line is that you have a decision to make,” Cuban added. “Stick with the new Twitter that democratizes every tweet by paid accounts and puts the onus on all users to curate for themselves. Or simply return to the old way of looking at 140 characters or less on the social network. One makes Twitter time and information efficient. The other is terrible.
The company is facing billions in fines from the FTC over privacy goofs dating to before Musk took over. But, the Twitter employee warned colleagues, Twitter could find itself even more legally exposed after the sudden resignation of multiple top Twitter executives charged with fulfilling the company’s FTC obligations, including its chief information security officer and chief privacy officer.
The Twitter Social Media Blue Perk: How Apple Overlaps the Twitter Identity Verification System Should Come Under Musk’s “Apple Tax”
The company’s website will cost $8 a month, or $11 a month if you use an app on the iPad or iPhone where in-app purchases are processed through the company’s App Store, which typically charges a 30% commission.
The new price tiers follow Musk’s comments that Apple’s so-called “Apple tax” was excessive and hurt the company’s rivals. Musk has since claimed his row with Apple was resolved following a meeting with the company’s chief executive, Tim Cook at the company’s Cupertino headquarters.
Musk now says there will be three colors for purchase: gold for companies; grey for governments and a blue check for prominent individuals, including celebrities.
The company has long struggled to grow its service the way larger competitors like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have and, even before Musk took over, the company’s advertising business had been far from robust.
Twitter has not answered questions about whether it still has the resources to take on such a daunting task after laying off more than half of the company’s staff.
“With a reduced workforce, it remains to be seen if it will be possible to prevent fraud, impersonation and scams with their new identity verification methodology,” Rachel Tobac, the CEO of the cybersecurity firm SocialProof Security, previously told NPR. “SCAMmers will quickly decide how to overload the identity verification system to get what they want.”
Some Twitter users have started to see a new explanatory note when they click on the blue checks of accounts that were verified before Musk’s takeover that reads: “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”
Ad revenue sharing isn’t the only Twitter Blue perk that Musk has announced but that isn’t currently available to subscribers. In December, he promised that the service would cut the number of ads you see in half, and a month before that, he said it’d give you “priority in replies, mentions & search.” Both features are still listed as “coming soon” on the Blue signup page, which is still a step above the information available for ad revenue.
Musk initially said the relaunch of the new system would take place at the end of November, but it was delayed several times over concerns about the safety of the feature.
What Are the Verification Categories? What Are They Looking For? What Do They Mean? How Does Blue for Business Impact Your Online Marketing? Which Features are Necessary?
The verification categories are intended to address some of the issues, but they are not clear what a requirement for people to pay to be verified would mean.
“All verified individual humans will have same blue check, as boundary of what constitutes ‘notable’ is otherwise too subjective,” Musk tweeted last month. “Individuals can have secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org.”
Not sure what exactly you receive for that monthly subscription? Are your eyes glazing over trying to figure out what all these different colored check marks mean? Here’s everything you need to know.
Making aesthetic adjustments to your experience can be done with the upgraded service. Change the appearance of the icon on your smartphone or tweak the in-app colors. For anyone who bookmarks an overwhelming assortment of Tweets, you can now sort through those bookmarked posts and organize them into private folders.
The new gray checkmark badges are for government and multilateral accounts. You could see it on the White House account. The company said in late November that it would be rolling out the gray badges.
Is it possible that after everything, you still want to be on social networking site, and you’re not sure? Anyone wanting something new can mull over the multiple alternative options with WIRED articles that help you get started on Mastodon, discover new servers on Discord, or consider giving LinkedIn a second chance.
The service isn’t sharing a lot of details. We don’t know how much Blue for Business will cost, who will be eligible, or how it’ll go about actually verifying that a business controls an account; Twitter’s Esther Crawford didn’t immediately reply to an inquiry over Twitter. The company will be letting more businesses subscribe next year according to the press release. Twitter does warn (in a truly tiny footnote) that Blue for Business’ features may not be available on all platforms and that they “may change periodically.”
The Meta Verified Program: Reviewing Twitter Before Musk Announced his First Public Message on Medium, Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Accounts
We dug into some of the features before the announcement, including the rounded square profile pictures and affiliate badges.
“Meta Verified” will start at $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 a month on iOS, and the company will begin releasing it in Australia and New Zealand this week and “more countries soon.”
To avoid fake accounts, customers who want to get the blue badge would need to provide a government ID which matches their profile name and picture. To be eligible, users have to be above 18.
In a statement, Meta clarified there will be no changes to accounts that are already verified. The verification used to be for users who were notable and authentic.
“We are evolving the meaning of the blue badge to focus on authenticity so we can expand verification access to more people,” a Meta spokesperson said. People can distinguish which accounts are notable public figures from accounts that share the same name by displaying follower count.
On February 3rd, Elon Musk made a big announcement. “Starting today, Twitter will share ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads,” he said, later adding that you’d have to be subscribed to Twitter Blue Verified to get your cut. We waited for more details about the program or official support documents going into more detail on how the whole thing would work.
This wouldn’t be the first time that he’s made an announcement with little to no follow-up, even if you’re just looking at Twitter. He lied about having a content moderation council that would vet policy changes but voted with the company in mind, trying to sell that same story again. He said that you would have to be a Blue subscriber to vote, but we can’t say if there is a follow up policy polls.
This isn’t to say that Blue subscribers haven’t gotten any new features since Musk’s takeover. They now have the ability to upload 60-minute videos, and they also have the capacity to write over 4,000 words on their social media accounts.
Since November the CEO and owner has been promising prioritized ranking, which he says is essential to defeat the scam. However, despite (or maybe because of) Musk’s push to make employees work in “hardcore” conditions, it hasn’t materialized. The same is true for several of his other promises — in February, he announced that Twitter was starting to share ad revenue with Blue subscribers, something that hasn’t started happening over a month later, and he promised to open source the company’s algorithm on the week of February 27th. That didn’t happen, but he promised that it would happen on March 31st.
Grey Checks from Government and Organizational Accounts: An Overview of the Soft Spectra Program at the CLIC Energy Adaptation Center
The company also announced on Thursday that it’s started accepting applications from governmental and organizational accounts that want a grey checkmark. Its documentation says accounts that are eligible for it include heads of state, members of congresses or parliaments, headquarters-level, regional-level, and country-level institutional accounts. (For example, the National Park Service has a grey check, as does the US president.)
