Paid and legacy Twitter verification now indistinguishable
- Reference: 1680525246
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/04/03/paid_and_legacy_twitter_verification/
- Source link:
And waited... And waited...
It seems that a high-profile backlash against the incoming $8 subscription fee among Twitter's most valuable users has led CEO Elon Musk to flip-flop once again because, despite the April Fools' Day deadline, popular accounts noticed the tick had stuck around.
[1]
The charge was led by LeBron James, professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, who has 52.8 million followers on the platform. On the eve of supposed tick annihilation, he tweeted:
Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5. 🤷🏾♂️ — LeBron James (@KingJames) [2]March 31, 2023
The post has been viewed some 67.2 million times. As of today, however, James's blue tick remains steadfastly in place.
Why? Anxious verified Twitter users, like [3]William Shatner , noticed a subtle rewording if one were to click on a checkmark.
[4]
[5]
It now reads: "This account is verified because it's subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account," which Shatner described as a "good compromise."
Is it, though? It's misleading for one. Users are now unable to distinguish between paid and legacy verification, as though the only value of the Twitter Blue subscription is to dupe people into thinking it's a legacy checkmark account.
[6]Judge grants subpoena to ID Twitter source code leaker
[7]For whom the bell polls: Twitter voting is for Blue users only now
[8]Meta confirms decentralized Twitter rival in the works
[9]Musk said Twitter would open source its algorithm – then fired the people who could
Meanwhile, a host of media organizations, including the [10]New York Times , also announced that they would not be shelling out to keep their tick. Checkmarks for organizations are gold and cost $1,000 a month.
"We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes," a spokesperson for the newspaper added.
[11]
According to [12]the Washington Post , the top 10,000 accounts are due to keep their legacy ticks regardless of whether they paid, but the NYT, the 24th most-followed account, has lost its checkmark, suggesting that the move is personal.
Other media companies refusing to pay [13]include CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Washington Post, and Vox.
The White House also said it [14]would not pay the fee to keep its staff's official profiles verified. "It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user," White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty told staffers in an email Friday – although this is no longer strictly the case.
[15]
In the meantime, for anyone wishing to join the hallowed halls of Twitter Blue, that'll be $8 from now on, thank you. We asked Twitter to comment on the reasoning for yet another U-turn and were [16]told : "💩" ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZCr4Ikgr2Q3p6INlN09X8AAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1641836984195743749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1642684775264837632
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCr4Ikgr2Q3p6INlN09X8AAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCr4Ikgr2Q3p6INlN09X8AAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/29/judge_grants_subpoena_request_to/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/28/twitter_verified/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/11/meta_twitter_rival/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/10/elon_musks_twitter_opensource_foulup/
[10] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/new-york-times-says-it-wont-pay-twitter-verified-check-marks-2023-04-02/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCr4Ikgr2Q3p6INlN09X8AAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/02/twitter-newyorktimes-musk-verified-badge/
[13] https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/30/media/news-organizations-elon-musk-twitter-checkmark
[14] https://www.axios.com/2023/03/31/twitter-verification-white-house-biden-check-mark
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCr4Ikgr2Q3p6INlN09X8AAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1637420728743088130
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Oh I am sure it can be automated, just call Susan in....oh, yes I see.
And it's a spat that really just makes him look even more of a thin skinned Twat then he already did. I was surprised that was possible. I really was...
I dunno. I think it's a sign of the times that despite the MSM moving their content behind paywalls, they're still not generating enough money to pay for their use of the 'essential' Twitter service.
“I think”
No, you don’t.
You wish the NYT didn't generate enough money to pay for anything it wanted. Yeah, continue wishing.
You wish the NYT didn't generate enough money to pay for anything it wanted.
It's just a little strange that they use paywalls and require subscriptions to view their product, yet don't want to pay another publisher to distribute their content. Especially as the MSM are also keen on charging other 'big tech' businesses fees for services like news aggregation. Also not sure why they're bothered about ticks when many of their 'news' stories are unverified anyway.
This is the way it usually works, the flow of payments goes towards the content producer. Twitter should be paying NYT for its content if there is going to be payment.
From other reporting I've seen elsewhere it appears (according to insiders, whatever that might mean), that removing Blue ticks is a manual process, and cant be automated. So someone has to physically go through and uncheck those boxes. Probably, why it's taking so long...
It's stored in a database; it could be automated.
Assuming the twit in chief hadn't have fired everybody who knew how to do that of course, who would have been followed out the door by everybody else with transferrable skills as the place collapses. That leaves those left who've been picked because primarily because their wages are cheap and who don't have transferrable skills to easily get another job. Therefore they don't know how to do that and can't figure it out.
This forces them to use the existing GUI, which was probably written in an era where a single person probably needed removing every few months. As they have the script, then somebody with even mediocre tech skills *could* reverse engineer that script to figure out what needs to be done. However, you'd then have the problem that the people who can do that are needed to keep the entire thing running, and if they stop doing that then the entire show will collapse around them.
> It's stored in a database; it could be automated.
Database? Database? You mean that would've been easier than just editing the JavaScript? I mean, we are doing it efficiently, using a distributed system (the list of account ids is distributed across a few hundred JS files).
As they have the script, then somebody with even mediocre tech skills *could* reverse engineer that script to figure out what needs to be done.
Unless some stressed(*) engineer reused the single "has_blue_tick" flag for both legacy and paid ticks.
(*) Not that I can think of any reason for one of Musk's engineers to be stressed.
LeBron James, professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, who has 52.8 million followers on the platform
Why? Are his words of wisdom that insightful?
Advertising dollars.
He's the most famous sports person on the planet. He (and the rest of the legacy notable blue ticks) were the product and the draw, they were never the consumer. They were never going to pay.
Having seen how Musk runs Twitter, I wouldn't buy a paper clip from him, never mind a £50,000 self driving car.
He's the most famous sports person on the planet. I am assuming that you are North American and equating "USA" to "planet". In other words, he may be well known in the US but quite likely relatively unknown amongst the remaining 7.8b population of the planet.
No Nick. He's very, very famous. You're just ignorant.
There's a browser extension to fix that....
There's a browser extension to fix that. Apparently they have gathered a list of all "traditionally" verified accounts.
[1]https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eight-dollars/fjbponfbognnefnmbffcfllkibbbobki
[2]https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/eightdollars/
[3]https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/eight-dollars/ehfacgbckjlegnlledgpkmkfbemhkknh
[4]https://github.com/TylerGlaiel/TwitterLegacyVerifiedData
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eight-dollars/fjbponfbognnefnmbffcfllkibbbobki
[2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/eightdollars/
[3] https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/eight-dollars/ehfacgbckjlegnlledgpkmkfbemhkknh
[4] https://github.com/TylerGlaiel/TwitterLegacyVerifiedData
Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....
Gosh, why did they bother? Who cares that much about whether someone was legacy verified to install, let alone create a plugin.
Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....
I was going to mention Eight Dollars. Eight Dollars seems to work quite well, I've used it. :-)
Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....
Anyone would think there are about a handful of developers left who don't really understand the system and are just messing round with the HTML and CSS but daren't touch the backend.
There's a much easier solution.
It's obvious if you think about it. Leave the blue ticks be, and give the people who paid a blue dollar sign.
Any other problem I can solve?
:)
From other reporting I've seen elsewhere it appears (according to insiders, whatever that might mean), that removing Blue ticks is a manual process, and cant be automated. So someone has to physically go through and uncheck those boxes. Probably, why it's taking so long...
The New York Times's removal is due to a clear spat between El Musky und the NYT. And it's a spat that really just makes him look even more of a thin skinned Twat then he already did. I was surprised that was possible. I really was...