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Image : Sattalat Phukkum ( Shutterstock ) Twitter is currently on fire. With Elon Musk as owner and CEO, the company has changed many rules and regulations users (and advertisers) had come to expect from the platform. The latest drama, however, concerns Twitter verification, and it’s throwing a wrench in the ability to tell which accounts are real and which are fake. The “blue checkmark” on Twitter was more than just a status symbol. Twitter’s verification process served as a means of identification: If you saw a blue check next to an account, say, for a politician, you knew that account was official, and not an impersonator. Accounts needed to be vetted to prove both their identity and noteworthiness before receiving a blue check, which is a good thing. Under the direction of Musk, though, anyone can buy a blue check by subscribing to Twitter Blue for $8 a month. Since the change, identifying legitimate users has been a challenge. In fact, Twitter Blue subscribers have taken adva...

Elon Musk is wasting no time in overhauling Twitter upon his acquisition of the company. In a leaked email — sent aggressively at around 2:30 a.m. — local time on Thursday, Musk laid into employees and said that working remotely would no longer be an option and he was expecting 40+ hour weeks in-office, apart from those with exceptions that Musk must approve. "Frankly, the economic picture ahead is dire," Musk wrote. "The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed." Musk's outlook was bleak, reportedly even telling employees on Thursday that bankruptcy was not out of the question, according to Reuters . In his email, Musk continued to drive home the importance of upping Twitter Blue subscriptions, his new policy wherein the platform charges users a $7.99 monthly fee in order to display a blue checkmark next to their name, something any user can purchase without verifying their identification. To counteract that, Musk introduced...

Elon Musk’s Twitter Inc. TWTR-N on Friday brought back the “official” badge to some accounts, just days after doing away with it, while several users reported the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared. The move follows a surge in fake accounts on the platform after new boss Elon Musk allowed users to pay US$8 for the coveted blue check mark that was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, actors and other major personalities. Fake accounts of several big brands have popped up with the blue check, including Mr. Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin. “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account – which has the “official” tag – tweeted on Friday. Mr. Musk on Wednesday tweeted he had “killed” the new label, just hours after rolling it out. Drug maker Eli Lilly and Co. issued an apology after an imposter account tweeted that insulin would be fr...

Elon Musk's disastrous back-and-forth rollout of Twitter Blue has caused a multitude of communication problems between users and trolls, with fake news and information inadvertently going viral after users quickly see blue checkmarks and assume what they are reading is from a legitimate source. Getty Images Though much of the banter has been in good jest, one company is feeling the very real implications of the viral spreading of misinformation. Eli Lilly and Company's stock plummeted on Thursday after an account posing to be the pharmaceutical company claimed that insulin would now be free in the United States. Screenshot via Twitter Eli Lilly was down just over 4% in a 24-hour period by Friday afternoon and 20 points in early trading on Friday morning. The account, which used the handle @EliLillyandCo, had the same username and profile photo as the official Eli Lilly and Co account whic...

The Mastodon site is shown on a smart phone in Oakland, Calif., on Nov. 11, 2022. Sites like Mastodon and even Tumblr are emerging as new (or renewed) alternatives to Twitter. Barbara Ortutay/The Associated Press Twitter has been a bit of a mess since billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the helm, cutting the company’s work force in half, upending the platform’s verification system, sparring with users over jokes and acknowledging that “ dumb things ” might happen as he reshapes one of the world’s most high-profile information ecosystems. On Thursday, amid an exodus of senior executives responsible for data privacy, cybersecurity and complying with regulations, he warned the company’s remaining employees that Twitter might not survive if it can’t find a way to bring in at least half its revenue from subscriptions. While it’s not clear if the drama is causing many users to leave – in fact, having a front-row seat to the chaos may prove entertaining to some – lesser-known sites Mastodo...

Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week,” billionaire owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. Twitter on Friday paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed. The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers. Several users reported on Friday that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped. “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account - which has the “official” tag - tweeted on Friday. The label was originally introduced on Wednesday - but “killed” by Musk just hours later. On Thursday, in his first com...

Twitter’s billionaire owner Elon Musk on Sunday said that Twitter will soon enable organizations to identify twitter accounts associated with them as the new Twitter owner continues to find ways to limit fake accounts on the platform. “Rolling out soon,” Musk in a tweet on Sunday said. “Twitter will enable organizations to identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them.” He did not elaborate. The social media platform paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed, and new owner Elon Musk brought back the “official” badge to some users of the social media platform. Fake accounts purporting to be big brands have popped up with the blue check since the new roll-out, including Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Roblox, Nestle and Lockheed Martin . Musk in a tweet yesterday said that Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week”. Twitter Inc’s new owner Elon Musk on Thursday raised the possibility...

SpaceX has bought an advertising package on Twitter for its satellite internet service Starlink, said Elon Musk, who owns the rocket company and the social media platform that is seeing an exodus of advertisers. “SpaceX Starlink bought a tiny – not large – ad package to test effectiveness of Twitter advertising in Australia & Spain. Did same for FB/Insta/Google,” Musk tweeted on Monday. Twitter TWTR-N, which generated more than 90 per cent of its second-quarter revenue from ad sales, has seen advertisers flee on fears that Musk would change the company’s content moderation rules. Companies including General Motors Co, General Mills , Mondelez International and Volkswagen AG paused advertising on the platform after Musk acquired it last month. “At the moment, most clients are suspending their activities (on Twitter) because they’re worried about extreme content and content moderation on the site,” S4 Capital’s Martin Sorrell said. The chief executive of Tesla Inc and SpaceX had la...

Photo : Emre Akkoyun ( Shutterstock ) If you’re thinking of deleting your Twitter , I wouldn’t blame you (I’d only ask what took you so long). Things are wild over there right now, and stability sure isn’t on the horizon. However, before you take the nuclear option and say goodbye to Elon Musk and his ilk, consider not deleting your account: Don’t stay, mind you—just leave in a safer way. Why deleting your Twitter is dangerous When you initiation the deactivation process for your Twitter account, it takes 30 days before your account is permanently deleted, tweets and all. However, once that 30 days is up, your username is fair game. After all, you deleted your account, and, therefore, relinquished your claim over the name. It now returns to the “people,” or at least the first person to notice its availability, where it can be used in a new account for as long as that user wants it. This is the nature of the internet: Abandon a username, and someone else will snatch it up. But it ...

Elon Musk sent a message to Twitter Inc TWTR-N staff telling them they had until Thursday to decide whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work “long hours at high intensity” or take a severance package of three months pay. Musk told Twitter employees that anyone who had not clicked on a link confirming “you want to be part of the new Twitter” by Thursday evening New York time would be considered to have quit. A copy of the message, which was reported by The Washington Post, was reviewed by Reuters. Three sources who had received the message at Twitter confirmed its content. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The latest move to restructure the company comes after Twitter slashed half of its workforce earlier this month as Musk took control of the social media company. Musk has criticized Twitter’s spending and work culture, and said that the company needs steep cost cuts and a reboot of its services. “Going forward, to build a breakth...

A hashtag's worth a thousand words when it comes to what's trending on Twitter, but sometimes you don't want to believe every hashtag you read. Getty Images Just ask comedian Jimmy Fallon who fell victim to a hashtag Tuesday into Wednesday that inferred he was, well, no longer living. The tag #RIPJimmyFallon started trending on Tuesday when thousands started using the hashtag in Tweets, some seeming to not grasp that the hashtag was fake while others fully embraced the joke. I can't believe you're gone. Fly high Jimmy Falcon. Gone way too soon #RIPJimmyFallon pic.twitter.com/NHUW5wF1yS — Emily Love (@HeyItsEmilyL) November 16, 2022 #RIPJimmyFallon . Taken too soon pic.twitter.com/O7CnBZVq6C — Woke Sigma Memes (@sigma_woke) November 15, 2022 "Mummy, why do only good people die?" "Well sweetie, when you're picking flowers from a garden. You always pick the bes...

Elon Musk’s first two weeks as Twitter’s owner have been marked by rapid change and chaos. CONSTANZA HEVIA/AFP/Getty Images Seven Democratic senators sent a letter on Thursday to the Federal Trade Commission, warning that Twitter TWTR-N, now owned by Elon Musk, was acting in disregard of users and urging the agency to investigate any breach of a consent decree that the FTC inked with Twitter. The lawmakers, including Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, asked the agency to consider enforcement actions against the company and against individual executives where appropriate. “In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform, and announced new features despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation,” the lawmakers said in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan. Neither Twitter nor the FTC immediately responded to requests for ...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The fallout from Elon Musk's request that Twitter staff commit "hardcore" to make Twitter 2.0 or get out revealed that given a choice, some people would rather get out. Following the Tesla mogul's declaration earlier this week that staff make it clear they were all in or leave (with severance), as many as 1,200 of the remaining 3,700 workers chose to resign. Anadolu Agency / Contributor | Getty Images The exodus was so rapid that Musk and remaining execs were spooked into locking down Twitter headquarters and deactivating security badges until November 21st. According to the New York Times , Twitter's "employee numbers are likely to remain fluid as the dust settles on the exits, with confusion abounding over who is keeping a tally of workers and running other workplace systems." The Times also ...

A sign at Twitter headquarters is shown in San Francisco, Nov. 18, 2022. Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump’s account on Twitter on Saturday, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. Musk made the announcement in the evening after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether Trump’s account should be restored. The “yes” vote won, with 51.2 per cent. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” Shortly afterward Trump’s account, which earlier had appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform along with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them. His former followers were gone, but the account quickly picked up hundreds of thousands of them. It is...