Twitter Blue verification controversy

The website's system was altered, allowing any individual to receive verification for a monthly fee, an act which saw significant criticism.

[3] In a blog post titled, "Not Playing Ball", then-CEO Biz Stone wrote that Twitter "[recognizes] an opportunity to improve [its] user experience".

[4] Within days, notable individuals such as actor Ashton Kutcher and talk show host Oprah Winfrey received a blue checkmark.

Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Twitter's suspension of then-president Donald Trump, Musk began tweeting about free speech at a more frequent rate, and focused on spam accounts more heavily.

[18] According to The Washington Post, prompted by the suspensions of conservative Christian satire website The Babylon Bee and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Musk proposed an acquisition of Twitter on April 14.

In a separate tweet, Musk wrote that Twitter Blue subscribers would receive priority in replies, mentions, and search, fewer advertisements, and longer audio and video.

[24] The announcement of paid verification resulted in several accounts facetiously impersonating Musk, such as those of comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman, being suspended.

[29] Upon introducing paid verification, various individuals in sports Twitter were impersonated, such as sports writer Adam Schefter and basketball player LeBron James, with tweets announcing the supposed ousting of Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels or James' trade from the Los Angeles Lakers, respectively.

[28] The Washington Post published a report on November 11 detailing how reporter Geoffrey Fowler was, with permission from United States senator Ed Markey, impersonating a U.S. senator, noting that a bug in Twitter's iOS app made the checkmarks for Markey's official account and the impersonation account virtually indistinguishable.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act passed, requiring companies to cap the price of insulin at US$35 per month for Medicare.

[38] On November 10, a Twitter account impersonating the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company—one of the three largest manufacturers of insulin—posted a tweet stating that insulin would be made free.

[41] Continuing from Musk's idea of company employees receiving an icon for their employers, Twitter announced Blue for Business on December 19.

The report defied Musk's claim that Twitter Blue subscribers would be manually verified and shows how impersonators still persist on the platform despite phone number verification and wait times.

[51] The removal of the state-affiliated label followed a change in Twitter's algorithm, in which restrictions on accounts belonging to Russian state media were lifted.

According to an email obtained by The Washington Post from April 26, members of Congress will lose blue checkmarks on their personal and campaign accounts in May.

[62] While some users, such as Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat appear to have been given verification for free, others, such as actor Ryan Reynolds—whose Twitter account has 21 million followers—do not.

[67] The Washington Post noted that several deceased individuals, such as basketball player Kobe Bryant, actor Chadwick Boseman, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington[68] had a blue checkmark.

Other figures with blue checkmarks include singer Michael Jackson, rapper Mac Miller, and senator John McCain.

[70] Other tweets made by impersonators include an account posing as politician Hillary Clinton declaring a supposed presidential bid in 2024, author J.K. Rowling apologizing for comments she made against transgender people, Pope Francis stating there are "at least three genders", Florida governor Ron DeSandis [sic] calling political donor Kent Sturmon a pedophile, singer Olivia Rodrigo taking credit for a fan-fiction post on Wattpad, and skater Tony Hawk talking about building a skate park in Des Moines, Iowa.

[71] One tweet, supposedly from cuisine publication The New York Times Cooking, attracted attention for sharing a meme recipe of a hand-shaped M&M cookie atop Greek salad, dubbed "King's Hand".

Taking advantage of the removal of the blue checkmarks for the Twitter accounts for Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago Department of Transportation, and the Illinois Department of Transportation, false accounts began appearing claiming that the major expressway Lake Shore Drive would close next month for private traffic.

[71] At least eleven accounts claiming to be the Los Angeles Police Department appeared in the wake of the removal of blue checkmarks.

[77] On May 22, an account aligned with the QAnon conspiracy theory posted an image generated by artificial intelligence that seemingly depicted an explosion near the Pentagon.

[83] Model Chrissy Teigen compared her blue checkmark to the film It Follows (2014) and was able to get hers removed by changing her username, telling speechwriter Jon Favreau.

[92] Singer Dionne Warwick, actor Ian McKellen, and rapper Lil Nas X outright stated that they refuse to pay for the blue checkmark, as actors Mark Hamill and Ben Stiller, activist Monica Lewinsky, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, and journalist Kara Swisher suggested they would.

[100] dril, who originated the #BlockTheBlue campaign, spoke to Mashable's Matt Binder, writing, "blocking [Twitter Blue subscribers] and encouraging others to do the same on a massive scale is the complete opposite of what they want".

[101] Conversely, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney wrote, "People in this #BlockTheBlue pressure campaign are losers and goons", with Musk replying with, "Exactly".

Solicitor Simon McGarr mentioned that Twitter's insistence on the blue checkmark for some users, such as dril, may violate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, as verifying accounts requires a phone number.

[98] Following the initial implementation of paid verification, the Twitter account for the anti-vaccine propaganda film Died Suddenly (2022) became verified.

[109] The removal of blue checkmarks has also been seen as "chaos for emergency services", according to Marc-André Argentino, a research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization.