Twitter won’t restart paid verification until ‘significant impersonations’ stop

To pay my taxes with the IRS I had to verify my identity with id.me with scanned images of several documents both sides even if blank and had to do a video chat with someone, holding up each document while they recorded the video of me showing documents. I did have to sit in a queue for a long time but they eventually verified me.

If Twitter did this would people even bother? I do not see another way to actually verify someone short of meeting them in person and scanning their state ID. Maybe Twitter needs to partner with drug stores that have a drive-through? Only half kidding

with the rise of mastodon in the past week [1] I feel twitter is already yesterday's news. It serves no purpose. It has lost whatever cachet it had. The world of the Fediverse and ActivityPub and Mastodon and similar implementations is the final escape from walled gardens and the horses have already run out of the barn.

  1. https://nora.codes/post/scaling-mastodon-in-the-face-of-an-exodus/

Im really very curious as to how they’re going to thread the needle here. This is ultimately the question right? Will Elon Musk find a way to magically thread the moderation needle in a way that inspires generations to come, or does it just become the Elon Musk social networks.

I won’t say his approach doesn’t make sense (in a very high risk kind of way). Take away all the rules then start fresh. He’s taking a hard line on CP which is great but already the impersonation issue is very nuanced. Do you let the rules be flexible I.e. let people impersonate in any way they choose, or do you tighten down trying to come up with a specific rule for every scenario. It seems like he’s leaning towards B — having a “parody” badge.

But part of protest and freedom of speech is being able to bend some uncritical rules. If he takes away the bending of the rules, people will probably go to a platform that lets them express themselves more fluidly.

But it also seems like he’s creating a safe space for the most extreme voices of the right. Trump, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson. I could totally see people paying a subscription fee for that crowd, and that crowd may be more amenable to rules as long as they see the rules as only limiting the “other side”