With a Washington Post reporter successfully getting a fake account verified by pretending to be US Senator Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat Saturday demanded answers from Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, about the new verification and impersonation policies. Musk, however, chose to mock the senator in reply, saying his real handle "sounds like a parody".
A Washington Post report said Saturday that its reporter was easily able to get the verified account, though he was impersonating Markey, having already obtained permission from the senator to test the feature.
Twitter has paused the $8 Twitter Blue verification process for now.
Prior to the pause, however, the Post reporter was able to open a Twitter account with username ‘@realEdMarkey’ with the help of a “a spare iPhone, a credit card and a little creativity”, as the report said. The handle duly got the blue verified checkmark, even though the senator already has two genuine verified accounts. What made it look worse for Twitter, though the blue tick should have come because the reporter had opted for the paid Twitter Blue subscription, it was found that Twitter said the fake account got the verified check mark “because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category”, the report claimed.
“I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” Markey posted on Twitter, sharing a letter that he has sent to the billionaire Tesla CEO from his official letterhead.
Musk Mocks Senator Markey
“Safeguards such as Twitter’s blue checkmark once allowed users to be smart, critical consumers of news and information in Twitter’s global town square,” the senator wrote in the letter. “But your Twitter takeover, rapid and haphazard imposition of platform changes, removal of safeguards against disinformation, and firing of large numbers of Twitter employees have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the Wild West of social media.”
Asking Musk to respond by November 25, Markey asked how Twitter allowed his impersonation and how the process would work in the future.
“Allowing an imposter to impersonate a U.S. Senator on Twitter is a serious matter that you need to address promptly,” the letter read.
While Twitter is yet to respond to the letter, Musk Sunday chose to mock the senator in reply to his post.
He wrote: "Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?"
Musk followed it up with another tweet, in which he chose to take a dig at his profile photo with a mask on. "And why does your pp have a mask!?"
People for Berney, another verified handle, sought to caution Musk that it was not “a great idea to troll a high ranking Senator”. The Twitter owner, however, remained unmoved, and shot a counter-question: “Are you suggesting the Senator will abuse his political power to attack me?”