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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

> Verified account @wokeflix_ tweeted the same image in a meme

> Verified account @randomsena tweeted the same image

> Another verified account, @RealAtulsay, tweeted the same image

Isn't "Verified" on Twitter just a subscription now, meaning it's just that these people have given Twitter money? Why it matters (in a journalistic sense) who has paid Twitter or not? And why are only some of the verified accounts mentioned as verified accounts, while others are verified but not mentioned as verified?

Such a weird article overall.

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Also, twitter shows the comments from "verified" handles on the top of other comments. Government sponsored trolls have unlimited flow of money to buy verified status and dominate the general public accounts.

This is how BJP government uses public money to run troll campaigns on social media against opposition leaders. [1]

Possibly hundreds or thousands of persons or "journalists" are getting funds from government to abuse the opposition leaders.

[1] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/exclusive-silver-touch-behin...

> Also, twitter shows the comments from "verified" handles on the top of other comments.

This is the exact main problem with paid Verification. Blue tweets surface to the top, disproportionate to the attention they actually receive, meaning you're more likely to see them. You're effectively paying for attention.

The problem isn’t money, it’s unique phone numbers and credit card numbers. Over time there is much easier ways to detect and mass ban platform manipulation accounts.

I’m sure the government of India can make as many numbers and cards as they want, but the problem is still that Twitter can know who issued both and a lot of information about them, including if they’re burner numbers. It still helps tremendously

That’s the promise. Whether they do anything with it is questionable.

https://imgur.com/a/6blpTqF shows my recent advertiser blocks from about 10 mins of browsing. Clearly inauthentic accounts, some paying the $1k gold check fees.

Well let’s see what Twitter says about their new blue program

Your account must have no signs of being misleading or deceptive

Your account must have no signs of engaging in platform manipulation and spam

So Twitter is telling us that those accounts should not be deceiving. Yet, they are.

https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/about-twit...

Sounds more like regular ToS that gives Twitter the right to cancel paid services, not a magic method to fix the issue. I know a ton of verified politicians that lied weekly on Twitter pre Musk. It's an unsolvable issue.

TOS only get used if you're a fly in the ointment in most cases.

If you're running an article on how Elon is changing twitter into a disinformation machine, the fact that they're verifying deceptive accounts would be relevant.

If you're running an article on how the India ruling party used AI to paint protestors in a false light, it isn't relevant. Worse bringing attention to it like this could give less-informed readers the false impression that "verified" actually meant something like "verified by the government".

Pretty much the definition of "win-win situation" in Elmo's Abridged Dictionary, right?

I think that's their point. It's a way of subtly pointing out that verification on Twitter is now useless, and shouldn't be trusted any more than claims from any other user. Even less, I guess, since it's not a equal distribution of people paying for verification, they all skew pretty hard to one side.

Would be great if they just came out and said it, instead of this passive aggressive nonsense.

That’s probably true for Twitter blue but there appears to be multiple forms of verification, including a government one and an organizations one.

"Verified" is now an anti-signal. It's more likely than not to indicate that the poster is a crank who's paying money to have their opinions disseminated.

It was never a signal for 99% of verified users. It as a game.

It was an anti-signal before.

It was at least a reliable signal that the person is who they say they are. They are shifting away from actual verification towards attempting to sell status, which rarely works.

I would agree with this, except verified account posts still get shown first.

So cranks and people trying to promote something.

Not true of the organisation verification.

I suspect there is considerable overlap in a Venn diagram of those who never hear about the image being manipulated and those who still think a blue tick is reserved for human-verified accounts.

I have seen so many pro-Russian bot accounts with blue verified symbol. These accounts also get priority on their replies, which are positioned at the start of the tweet conversation compared to non-blue / non paying twitter handles, giving them a bigger amplification.

Whenever I see blue tick accounts now, I notice most of them have <1000 followers and have no authority in the subject matter and I ignore most of them. I have noticed a lot of right-wing handles, all having the blue tick and getting priority on spreading their misinformation as it was in this case.

Elon has broken the verified system on purpose to fit his new anti-government / anti-"woke" agenda.

This is wrong on most every level

Agreed. There's a lot of claims that are unsubstantiated as well as full of anecodes. It's hard to discern how this can lead to 'curious' discussion.

Yea. the moment Elon started charging for the blue tick, it became useless and I wouldn't pay for it anymore unless I really want to use the extra goodies that it provides which I don't need personally.

Why do people care about Twitter at all?

It doesn't matter what people say on 4chan or fox "news", why is twitter any different?

It's all just opinions, not worth anyone's time. Ignore it.

The media we ignore still can have a huge impact on society, on elections, on basic human civility. Ignoring Fox News hasn’t made it any less damaging.

yeah verified only means you either gave your credit card name/number to them or someone gave them a stolen one. It's basically useless. However in this case I'm more apt to believe the government is manipulating photos than randos on twitter given the recent drive towards religious and ethnic minority discrimination by the Indian government.

Such a weird comment. Yes, what is wrong with emptying the label of any meaning and letting any misinformation trash account buy it for a few bucks? You might be terminally online but then not everyone is.

Isn’t Verified a feature to (supposedly) attest someone identity instead of attesting the trueness of their tweets?

For my understanding the purpose was to help newcomers to distinguish @realDonaldTrump with @veryRealTrump. It is supposed to prevent impersonating, but that’s just a shift of trust from your own judgement to the Twitter chosen fraud algorithm or whatever method they choose. Can’t see how 10$ add more credibility.

They got rid of the identity part. Now all it indicates is that you pay Twitter.

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