Fake Pentagon attack hoax shows perils of Twitter’s paid verification

techcrunch.com

7 pointsamanzi4 comments

It’s a good thing that people are being forced to be skeptical of what they read on the internet. The idea that people blindly consider info from bloomberg credible is horrifying. Bloomberg is a place where the wealthy pump stocks they want to dump and trash stocks they want to buy with a sprinkling of paid PR

The first few words of the article sums it up well: "Surprising literally no one..."

Elon Musk is obviously a smart guy, but he's not infallible and his management of Twitter has proved this beyond doubt.

> If you see an account called “Bloomberg Feed” that has a blue check posting about an attack on the Pentagon, you’re probably predisposed to think it’s real.

By now, seeing anything on Twitter is just a signal that there may be something real happening, and you should go check a reputable source.

The problem is that until six months ago the name “Bloomberg Feed” and the blue check would’ve been sufficient to establish it as a reputable source, and (much to the shock of HNers) many people do not follow Twitter/Musk drama closely enough to realize that is no longer the case.

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