The “blue checkmark” trust indicator was only given out by the social media platform if an account satisfied certain requirements and was verified to be who they said they were. However, once Elon Musk purchased the company, the parameters were relaxed. After Twitter Blue’s release, however, the platform became a free-for-all. There was growing criticism that every other account on Twitter had a blue checkmark, prompting the social media platform to take action. To identify verified accounts, they implemented a grey checkmark alongside an official badge. Unfortunately, the move backfired when hundreds of fake accounts claiming to represent major brands like Nintendo flooded the platform within hours of its launch. Since every change causes problems, the question becomes: Were the problems here particularly severe enough to justify the reversal of the decision? The official Nintendo of America Twitter account appeared to tweet several baffling photographs of Super Mario, including one in which he appeared to give the middle finger. This fake account, with the name @nlntendoofus, was quickly suspended when its posts were widely shared across Twitter.
— steven ‘‘italian elon musk’’ monacelli (@stevanzetti) November 9, 2022 As if that weren’t enough, there was a Twitter account advertising a “competitive platform” and pretending to be Valve. Even though the account name is actually valvesotfware and Valve would never make an announcement this way, many people apparently thought it was real due to the huge blue tick next to its name.
— Stuart Houghton (@stuarthoughton) November 10, 2022 Moreover, an account using the handle @RockstarGamse (nice) tweeted the release date for GTA VI, which, to be fair, blew up quite quickly, and it’d be lame to wonder why?
— Glep (@ItsGlep) November 9, 2022 Though Twitter quickly suspended the accounts in question, the damage had already been done, catching the attention of at least a few people.
