-
sen. Ed Markey said his account was “easily” impersonated with a fake account with a blue verification check.
-
Musk responded to the complaint, saying that Markey’s real account “sounds like a parody”.
-
Musk fired about half of Twitter’s staff, including the policy makers who verify politicians’ accounts.
sen. Ed Markey wrote a letter to Elon Musk after someone impersonated his Twitter account with a blue check mark. Musk responded on Twitter by saying that the senator’s real account “sounds like a parody”.
In a letter addressed to Musk and shared on Twitter, Markey said that a Washington Post reporter “easily set up a fake Twitter account in my name and by paying $8.00 could also get Twitter’s blue tick, indicating that Twitter had ‘verified’ that it was account was indeed that of a sitting U.S. Senator.”
“It wasn’t,” continued Markey’s letter to Musk. “Apparently, because of Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone can pay $8.00 and impersonate someone on your platform.”
The Washington Post reported Friday that the outlet was verified “within minutes” while experimenting with the verification system and creating “impostor accounts” for Markey and a comedian. Both fake accounts were quickly verified, making the blue check “mostly worthless,” according to the Post.
After the experiment, Markey said Twitter should “explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”
“Maybe because your real account sounds like a parody?” Musk said on Twitter in response to Markey’s tweet. He also asked why Markey is wearing a mask in his profile picture.
Markey posted another tweet in response to Musk, listing the billionaire’s companies under several investigations.
“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Automotive safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another company for killing people. And you spend your time sorting out arguments online,” says Markey. tweeted. ‘Repair your businesses. Or Congress will.”
The Federal Trade Commission said on Friday it is “following recent developments on Twitter with great concern”. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spent months investigating Tesla’s autopilot feature, reviewing data from 830,000 Tesla cars and nearly 200 new collisions while the autopilot feature was activated.
Musk said last week that he wants Twitter to be the “most accurate source of information,” though many of his tweets in recent weeks contradict him. He tweeted a link to a news site spreading baseless (and homophobic) claims about the attack on Paul Pelosi, which left the House Speaker’s husband in the hospital. He also tweeted that Twitter was the biggest driver of “clicks” on the internet, after which he was quickly fact-checked for being “100% wrong”.
Musk’s tweets have landed him in hot water with advertisers, several of whom have suspended ads on the site. Since completing his takeover of Twitter last month, he has fired several top executives and much of the company’s staff, including public order officials who verify politicians’ accounts.
Read the original article on Business Insider
