2023-07-17 15:37:59
Has the blue check mark on Twitter turned into a weapon for fake news purveyors? After it had long been a guarantee of original content, and often of credibility, the blue authentication mark on Twitter has become an effective way to spread false information, as it gives parties involved in media disinformation and promoters of conspiracy theories an unexpected wider spread, according to Agence France-Presse. In June, an account verified with a blue tick confirmed the misinformation that the “zombie drug” It is a mixture of fentanyl and xylazine that kills many in the United States. It has “invaded” France, a message that has been shared hundreds of times, as indicated by the news fact-finding teams of the “Agence France Presse”. And while it was previously necessary to meet certain conditions, including that the account holder be a public figure, in addition to undergoing identity checks, it is now sufficient to subscribe to the “Twitter Blue” service (at a price starting at $ 8 per month), to obtain on the blue tick on the user’s profile, and then benefit from a wider reach thanks to the platform’s algorithms. For many users, the confusion still exists, as the blue tick in their minds is still synonymous with the credibility of the tweets, and the validity of the identity of the account holder. In another recent example, a tweet that was retweeted thousands of times by multiple accounts marked with a blue tick contained a false advertisement inviting citizens of North Africa and the Middle East to take part in the “Ukrainian counterattack” in exchange for the opportunity to obtain citizenships of Western countries. And “Europa, the last battle,” a Swedish neo-Nazi propaganda film well known among white supremacists and anti-Semites, has seen a resurgence thanks to this type of account. “Whether with regard to Ukraine, Covid or the recent riots in France, the main axes of disinformation are being pushed through accounts attached to authentication tags, which benefit from algorithmic support,” asserts Tristan Mendes France, a specialist in digital cultures and online extremism. “The blue verification mark on (Twitter) used to be an indicator of influence and authenticity, but now it is closely associated with hate-mongering and conspiracy theories,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Combating Digital Hate, said in a note published in early June. The algorithm The new authentication system was launched via “Twitter” in November 2022, in an atmosphere of ambiguity, and, according to the current head of “Twitter”, billionaire Elon Musk, it would have made the network equally available to all users, combat fake accounts, and diversify The company’s sources of income. Thanks to this new system, accounts posting racist, anti-Semitic, conspiratorial or provocative remarks, following being banned from the social network, prior to Musk’s takeover, were reactivated. As a result, in just a few weeks, some of these accounts gained more followers than they had in their 15 years of existence on Twitter, which now has more than 500 million active users. “There are far-right activists who felt left out of the big platforms that censored them when they decided to clamp down in 2017,” says Tristan Mendes France, following an anti-racism activist was trampled to death in Charlottesville by a neo-Nazi sympathizer. In this context, the change in the rules for issuing authentication tags on Twitter was a boon for far-right activists who, by purchasing the blue tag, were able to “restore presence” on the platform, according to Mendes France. This change also attracted conspiracy theorists, following they were seduced by Elon Musk’s speeches calling for complete freedom of expression. Useless reports In April, Newsgaard issued a warning, in this context, as the company that evaluates the credibility of websites warned of the “new legitimacy granted” to “some influencers who promote false information.” After 3 months, this trend seems to be expanding, and accounts documented with the blue mark have claimed that “diversity is a pretext for white genocide,” or that “Hitler was right,” without any penalties once morest the owners of these accounts, despite the many reports once morest them, according to “ Center for Combating Digital Hate. For Chen Lapi, vice president of Newsguard, this “dangerous mix” is of particular importance. Because many of the “qualitative sources” refused to pay the monthly subscription to “Twitter Blue”, which reduced their visibility on the network. She added, “With the advent of Threads (the app I created to compete with Twitter), it is difficult to predict what will happen, but the risk is that all trusted sources will leave the platform.” In response to a question by “Agence France Presse”, “Twitter” was satisfied with its automatic response to any request for comment, which is an emoji in the form of a pile of waste.
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