Over the years, with an increase in access to technology and mobile phone and an exponentially skyrocketing user database of Twitter, the Blue Tick and its prestige has risen to not only the celebrity status that it displays but a mark of influence, authority, and power in the game of words on Twitter and the royalty that is associated with it. However, the prestigious blue tick is losing its value as it has been ridiculed by internet users by creating bot accounts and getting them verified not only making a mockery out of Twitter but also out of the Blue Tick verification process that it employs.
After getting a lot of heat from the globe about the scams by Bots, Twitter took to action and presented a new, updated and improved process to verify accounts and award the blue tick. This update took to the social media platform over three months ago in May. The heads at Twitter expected this process to be foolproof and the light that saved Twitter. However, the reality was way different than what the experts had suspected and within months of this update, Internet users stormed Twitter with Bot pages. This action of the community led to the unveiling of the facade of the only upgrade that was required as some of these bots were awarded the Blue Tick while they used fake accounts and entirely random imaging to process it.
This flaw was identified by a Data Researcher who collected data and pointed out the Bots that were awarded the tick. The individual that used the handle of Conspirador Norteno identified six bot accounts that were awarded the tick. The surprising element was that these accounts were only one month in the making and absolutely new to the social media platform. Despite the created date being easily available. Twitter’s updated verification process was ridiculed within months of the company boasting its successful launch.
Norteno even took out the time to explain that these six accounts had the same 976 followers and all of these accounts were created on the 20th of June and communicated in Korean following a dot spam notation over their user page. Norteno also mentioned that the Display Photos used by these Bots were either stock photos or AI depictions further making a joke out of the updated process.
After a few hours of Norteno’s Tweet, Twitter took down the six accounts and deleted them being stunned at the fact of them getting the blue tick despite the various problems that these accounts had. This was a disaster for Twitter as, after 5 years of suspension, the updated policy failed within a few months.
The failure has brought into speculation various theories many of which revolve around the entire process being automated. Without any insight into the workings of the process itself the problems are impossible to spot and the speculative theories are gonna roam the internet unless there is a word from Twitter on the action.
The only statement from Twitter revolved that the individuals providing the blue ticks are being trained rigorously, however, the question still stands as to how the slip happened in the first place and what substantive steps are being taken to resolve the issue. The outcome is troublesome to Twitter as people who are being rejected by the system are only referring with saying that it is not them that is at the fault but it is the system that is broken the following suit with evidence that there are many more bots other than these 6 that is verified when real humans are not. Twitter is under fire and scrutiny and we will be awaiting its actions.
Read next: Instagram and Twitter join hands once again, making importing pictures from Twitter possible
After getting a lot of heat from the globe about the scams by Bots, Twitter took to action and presented a new, updated and improved process to verify accounts and award the blue tick. This update took to the social media platform over three months ago in May. The heads at Twitter expected this process to be foolproof and the light that saved Twitter. However, the reality was way different than what the experts had suspected and within months of this update, Internet users stormed Twitter with Bot pages. This action of the community led to the unveiling of the facade of the only upgrade that was required as some of these bots were awarded the Blue Tick while they used fake accounts and entirely random imaging to process it.
This flaw was identified by a Data Researcher who collected data and pointed out the Bots that were awarded the tick. The individual that used the handle of Conspirador Norteno identified six bot accounts that were awarded the tick. The surprising element was that these accounts were only one month in the making and absolutely new to the social media platform. Despite the created date being easily available. Twitter’s updated verification process was ridiculed within months of the company boasting its successful launch.
Norteno even took out the time to explain that these six accounts had the same 976 followers and all of these accounts were created on the 20th of June and communicated in Korean following a dot spam notation over their user page. Norteno also mentioned that the Display Photos used by these Bots were either stock photos or AI depictions further making a joke out of the updated process.
These six newly-created verified accounts have 977 followers in common. One is @verified (which follows all blue-check verified accounts). The other 976 were all created on June 19th or June 20th, 2021, and all follow the same 190 accounts. #Astroturf pic.twitter.com/N6kkh2DBZ3
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) July 12, 2021
This botnet uses multiple varieties of GAN-generated profile pics. (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used by https://t.co/AxF5723Pje.)
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) July 12, 2021
• 160 fake human faces (all female)
• 169 fake cats
• 183 anime pics pic.twitter.com/VYJDitjGxM
After a few hours of Norteno’s Tweet, Twitter took down the six accounts and deleted them being stunned at the fact of them getting the blue tick despite the various problems that these accounts had. This was a disaster for Twitter as, after 5 years of suspension, the updated policy failed within a few months.
The failure has brought into speculation various theories many of which revolve around the entire process being automated. Without any insight into the workings of the process itself the problems are impossible to spot and the speculative theories are gonna roam the internet unless there is a word from Twitter on the action.
The only statement from Twitter revolved that the individuals providing the blue ticks are being trained rigorously, however, the question still stands as to how the slip happened in the first place and what substantive steps are being taken to resolve the issue. The outcome is troublesome to Twitter as people who are being rejected by the system are only referring with saying that it is not them that is at the fault but it is the system that is broken the following suit with evidence that there are many more bots other than these 6 that is verified when real humans are not. Twitter is under fire and scrutiny and we will be awaiting its actions.
Read next: Instagram and Twitter join hands once again, making importing pictures from Twitter possible
