This week whereas scrolling on X, previously Twitter, I observed that I had reposted a sequence of TechCrunch articles. Besides, wait, no, I hadn’t.
However another person utilizing my title had. I clicked on the profile, and there was one other Rebecca Bellan, utilizing the identical default and header photographs as my precise profile: me onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 and side-eye Chloe, respectively. The bio learn, “@Techcrunch senior reporter | journalist,” and it had the situation set to NY, the place I’m presently primarily based. The account was created in Might 2024.
Maybe most stunning after realizing that somebody — who? A bot?! — had created an impersonator account of me was the truth that they’d ostensibly paid to take action, as evidenced by the little blue checkmark subsequent to my title.
When X was nonetheless Twitter, the blue checkmark would let different customers know {that a} profile had been verified as an individual of word. However since Elon Musk’s hostile takeover, that checkmark now means {that a} consumer has paid at the very least $8 per thirty days for a premium subscription that will get them entry to longer posts, fewer advertisements, higher algorithmic consideration and Grok. And whereas X modified tack in April and gave the verification badge again to some customers primarily based on variety of followers, the blue checkmark may additionally imply somebody is a fan of Musk. Don’t consider me? Simply verify all of the zealous reply guys on any of Musk’s posts.
Anyway, I’m neither a paid subscriber nor a fan.
I’m additionally not the one one who was focused with impersonation accounts. A handful of TechCrunch journalists have additionally been impersonated on the platform. Among the accounts, together with my very own faux one, have been suspended after being reported to X. However this solely tells us that X is actively conscious of this drawback.
And the issue is that impersonation assaults like these are a lot simpler to hold out due to the degradation of X’s verification system, which really doesn’t appear to require any id verification in any respect. Having a pay-to-play blue verify system simply begs dangerous actors and nation-states to abuse it.
Actually, X ought to have realized its lesson by now. When Musk initially rolled out what was then referred to as Twitter Blue in November 2023, the function was rapidly weaponized to assist dangerous actors fake to be celebrities, companies and authorities officers. One account impersonated pharma firm Eli Lilly and posted a faux announcement that insulin is now free. That tweet was seen tens of millions of occasions earlier than it was eliminated, and the corporate’s inventory took a success in consequence.
One other account pretended to be basketball star LeBron James and posted that he was formally asking for a commerce from the Lakers workforce. One other posed as Connor McDavid and introduced that the hockey participant’s contract had been purchased by the New York Islanders.
The accounts pretending to be TechCrunch journalists have been, up to now, benign. All they’ve achieved is repost content material that truthfully any one among us might need reposted anyway. This means that, relatively than notably malicious actors, the accounts have been probably created by bots.
We’ve been overlaying X’s Verified consumer bot drawback for a while. The irony is that Musk advised that forcing customers to pay for verification would really weed out the bots on the platform, however clearly that’s not the case.
For individuals who have been impersonated, you possibly can report it to X, which is able to make you do a third-party verification that entails importing photographs of your government-issued ID and a selfie. I additionally requested co-workers, mates and followers to report the impersonation to X on my behalf, which can have expedited the method.
X didn’t reply to TechCrunch to offer touch upon what number of of its customers would possibly really be bots, why this drawback continues to be occurring, or what the platform is doing to resolve it.