The last 48 hours on Twitter have been a disastrous landmine of copycatstrolls and others who spend cash for a blue check mark, leading to confusion for users and making it impossible to quickly tell which accounts are real or not.
John Lamparsky | fake images
Though Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been dramatic: legal battles, overhaul of internal operations, mass layoffs, dissolution of the Board, one of the latest changes, the launch of the $7.99 pay-per-verify plan of Musk, is causing chaos because he has no real verification.
The new system is drawing scorn from Musk’s contemporaries, including Mark Cuban. The billionaire took to Twitter on Wednesday night to voice his complaints about how the new blue checkmark system made it difficult for him to see which accounts were truly notable versus which accounts had just bought the checkmark.
It’s working for me. With that said, we can definitely make the verified mentions tab more useful.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2022
As part of the plan, when an account with a blue check mark replies to or interacts with a user’s tweet, it will appear first and at the top of replies and mentions.
However, Musk’s response wasn’t enough for Cuban, who then went on a multi-tweet tirade about the inherent flaws in Musk’s new checkmark system, how it’s ruining the user experience, and how it generally takes away from it. Twitter’s greatest strength: the speed at which users can find and share verified and valuable information.
Of course, Cuban had to have the last word as he ended his tirade with words directed solely at Musk. saying “Again. Your business. Your call.”
Musk had temporarily introduced a gray checkmark feature earlier this week that would give a secondary ID, not available for purchase, to certain verified accounts, but he quickly removed the feature just hours after it was rolled out, saying he would go ahead with it. just use the blue check mark as the “great equalizer”. So far, it’s not going well.
Twitter is inundated with verified phishing accounts. It is not only about individuals, but also about brands. Given the volume, moderation is lagging behind allowing brand-damaging tweets to go viral. Brands are likely to put a lot of pressure on Twitter to stop this.
– Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) November 9, 2022
Following sports transactions and news could turn into a total disaster with the new verification system
False tweets from LeBron and Aroldis Chapman are already circulating pic.twitter.com/vQgMqws1W0
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022
Sports is the main reason so many people are still on Twitter, and having fake reports from Schefter, Woj, Passan, etc, etc, can push many people to wait for official news push notifications. pic.twitter.com/tIxpMfVlNH
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022
I see that the “verification” system is going great. pic.twitter.com/Ck8N5WTReb
—Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) November 9, 2022
verified fake nintendo providing the twitter content we’ve been waiting for pic.twitter.com/N8byXyEd6e
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 10, 2022
Musk did not directly tweet about the complaints, but asked his followers if they had seen fewer spam accounts and bots since his acquisition.
Do you see much less bots/scams/spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2022
As of 12:00 pm EST on Thursday, more than 2,043,000 users had voted with the vote nearly split 50/50, with 51% of voters saying yes and 49% saying no.
This is not the first time Cuban has taken to the social media platform to criticize the Tesla founder.
In April, Cuban claimed that Musk’s offer to buy Twitter was his sarcastic way of “fucking the SEC” following a $40 million lawsuit that Musk and Tesla had to pay the organization after Musk infamously tweeted that he had “financing”. insured” to take Tesla private.
Earlier this month, Cuban tweeted that he was looking forward to the “era” of Musk as the platform’s leader, indirectly saying that he will “flex” to “show everyone who’s in charge.”
I’m looking forward to the @Elon Musk It was on Twitter. He is a smart, shoot and aim entrepreneur who will really enjoy fucking everyone who expects him. The only expectation you can have of @Elon Musk is that you will flex your independence to show everyone who is in charge
— Mark Cubano (@mcuban) October 28, 2022