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from the sometimes-a-cigar-is-just-a-cigar dept.
A Twitter rules update rolled out on Wednesday to address the site's "verification" system, and it attached a new set of standards to any user whose account receives a "blue check mark."
Twitter's "verification" system is used to confirm accounts of celebrities and other accounts of "public interest." However, the feature has long straddled a blurry line between identity confirmation and "elite" user status, especially since verified accounts receive heightened visibility and perks such as content filters. That issue returned to the headlines last week when Twitter gave a blue check mark to white nationalist Jason Kessler. Kessler is best known as an organizer of the Unite The Right white-supremacist rally, but before then, he had racked up a significant record of online hate propagation, particularly with anti-Semitic rhetoric about "cultural Marxism."
"Twitter on Wednesday removed the 'verification' checkmarks from the accounts of a number of white nationalists and far-right activists -- in a move that critics say could have a chilling effect on free speech." http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/11/16/twitter-targets-white-nationalists-and-far-right-activists-in-de-verification-purge.html
(Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Friday November 17 2017, @05:41PM (1 child)
What I don't get about the blue badge is why Twitter seems to be giving them out for free. We're talking about public figures with PR budgets, after all. Why not pay for the privilege? It would certainly clear up a lot about whether Twitter endorses the recipients, not to mention aiding the process of verification and making some headway on their revenue problem. I expect paying customers to get preferential treatment.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday November 17 2017, @07:26PM
Twitter, if it weren't for us, they wouldn't be here. They wouldn’t exist. They should pay us. Like it or don’t like it, people have backed Twitter. What I really mind though is we back it at tremendous expense. We get nothing for it. The primary reason we are with Twitter is because we need to get our message out. Now, we don’t need that so much. And, if we let our people really go, we wouldn’t need Twitter at all. And we could let everybody else fight it out. Look, Twitter is going to be in big trouble pretty soon. And they’re going to need help. I think Twitter is a major target, a major target.