Musk: Paid checkmarks won’t return until Twitter can stop impersonation

Signal contradicts Musk, says it’s not helping to encrypt Twitter DMs.

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[omnibahumut]

Is the delay really because Musk is finally putting some thought into how to implement verification, or is it because all the engineers responsible for subscriptions and verifications no longer work at Twitter?

 

[AusPeter]

Hopefully these checkmarks will actually use different shapes, and not simply different colors to distinguish between the different concepts they represent .. because .. well .. all the history of UI research that has gone before.

Edit: Who am I kidding? I forgot who I was commenting about!

 

[grommit!]

In this particular case, Bankman-Fried’s victims were targeted for the crypto scam, but more commonly these types of scams rely on fake celebrity endorsements.

Is there really any difference between "fake" and "real" celebrity endorsements?

https://www.thecut.com/2022/11/gisele-bndchen-and-tom-brady-named-in-ftx-crypto-lawsuit.html

Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady have been brought back together under some pretty unfortunate circumstances. The former couple are just two big-name celebrities named in a lawsuit filed this week in Florida against the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

 

[altsuperego]

So never? I don't think you can verify users without account reps.

 

[LuDux]

Someone needs to help this lunatic find his next distraction.

 

[ubercurmudgeon]

Presumably some hotshot frontend developer has just explained the "color" CSS property to Musk? In an all-night session which he'll later tweet as having been a kernel source code revision.

 

[bretayn]

So, last week it was “turn Twitter into Onlyfans,” and this week it’s, “turn Twitter into Signal?” What’s next, “turn Twitter into Amazon? Turn Twitter into a Veg-o-Matic? It slices, it dices…?”

 

[Deleted member 92645]

I'm not trusting my personal communications to a company lead by a clown, sorry Musk.

 

[withak]

New rule: Blue check is only for people who are who they say they are. Impersonators are required to select another color.

 

[samanime]

Well, now that he only has like 10 people working for him, he should be able to keep the lights on for a little longer.

But, since he only has like 10 people working for him, these features are going to take ages to implement, even if they are working 80 hours a week...

 

[VividVerism]

Twitter is becoming an all-in-one messaging app? Maybe he can sell to GoogleAlphabet.

 

[H2O Rip]

This reads to me just like more flailing, as all of the issues he notes here were brought to his attention before the failed launch of paid checkmarks.

Every day he reinforces to brands why Twitter is not a brand safe place to advertise, and I don't see a path forward without significant site reliability issues. It makes me sad because twitter has value if one wants timely information on things, but at this point I have no desire to contribute to his traffic metrics ego by using it actively.

 

[pehash]

Probably his maga conclave complained about blue vs red...

 

[jwbaker]

Just slapping E2EE onto Twitter DMs is way harder than Apartheid Emerald Heir is trying to make it sound. A multi-user, multi-device, multi-platform E2EE scheme that normal people can actually use is incredibly tricky. Signal works because it is a phone number based system, which is a dramatically simpler problem.

 

[rdickeyvii]

I can't believe he's stifling our free speech like this!

/s

 

[autoteleology]

Just this week, for example, Vice reported that a fake account used Blue Verified to impersonate FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. That fake account relied on a deepfake video pretending to be showing Bankman-Fried promising to refund victims of the FTX scandal by enrolling them in a cryptocurrency giveaway that would help them not only regain lost funds, but double their money.

Relying on the video and Twitter’s verified checkmark, the fake account tricked users into visiting the cryptocurrency giveaway and sending tokens to the scammer. In return, Twitter users who were scammed got nothing, Vice reported.

I literally cannot imagine being fruit for scammers hanging low enough to fall for this, it almost comes across as more of a joke than an actual attempt at a scam, and yet here we are.

 

[Static and Noise]

Turning Twitter from a social media platform to a 100% encrypted messaging platform is certainly an idea. Of course, how he'd monetize that remains to be seen, Signal already exists and lives on donations, which won't be nearly enough. Charging for something users have come to expect to be essentially free won't work. And finally, very few people care about end-to-end encrypted messaging. It's a common nerd fallacy, where the number of people who care about not being tracked, 100% encryption etc is vastly overestimated.

A variant of this XKCD, really:

Spoiler

 

[Sarty]

I anxiously await whatever is the next thing that literally everyone else knows which is to be brilliantly reinvented by Elmo.

 

[ItchyPoo]

Is the delay really because Musk is finally putting some thought into how to implement verification, or is it because all the engineers responsible for subscriptions and verifications no longer work at Twitter?

Those don’t seem mutually exclusive.

Edit: the two best twitter jokes I have seen on Ars recently:
1. Musk just paid a world record for a domain name.
2. This is good for Bitcoin twitter.

 

[reiella]

Hopefully these checkmarks will actually use different shapes, and not simply different colors to distinguish between the different concepts they represent .. because .. well .. all the history of UI research that has gone before.

Edit: Who am I kidding? I forgot who I was commenting about!

Verification by hexagon profile picture.

 

[jeblucas]

These are all good exciting ideas, and it would probably be a good idea to hang on to some engineers familiar with the platform to help implement them. A wise steward like Mr. Musk will surely realize this and work his hardest to ensure continuity of service and employee retention in this difficult transition.

SLASH ESS

 

[Deleted member 853890]

Every day he reinforces to brands why Twitter is not a brand safe place to advertise, and I don't see a path forward without significant site reliability issues.

Oh, that's nothing - apparently the site's advertising controls just straight up don't work now.


View: https://mobile.twitter.com/petergyang/status/1594696056348049410


Restarting six years worth of paused campaigns without confirmation from the advertiser? That's gonna go over well...

 

[Sarty]

A variant of this XKCD, really:

Spoiler

undefined

Huh, I really expected you to go with the $5 wrench.

 

[ip_what]

Just slapping E2EE onto Twitter DMs is way harder than Apartheid Emerald Heir is trying to make it sound. A multi-user, multi-device, multi-platform E2EE scheme that normal people can actually use is incredibly tricky. Signal works because it is a phone number based system, which is a dramatically simpler problem.

Nonsense. Multiple people with very serious blue check marks repeatedly tell me in the replies to Elon’s tweets that everything about twitter is very simple, actually.

 

[the_frakker]

Does this mean that pre-Musk verifications will remain in place until the new program launches? What about those who paid for blue during its short run?

 

[vonduck]

more weasel words. nothing verified about blue verified. just like nothing self driving about fsd.

 

[Pishaw]

"In addition to encrypted DMs, Musk wants to add encrypted voice and video chat features."

You mean like a phone?

Look, Elon, let me help you out here. I'll give you twenty five dollars for Twitter. Then shut it the fuck down.

 

[DaphneDiane]

New rule: Blue check is only for people who are who they say they are. Impersonators are required to select another color.

Seems simple enough, just follow RFC 3514 and allow blue for the check only if the E bit is 0.

 

[Deleted member 853890]

But Musk also has other big ideas, and he has told his dwindled team of engineers that he will require long hours from them to help evolve the platform.

While also making it impossible for them to actually work those hours, by taking away things like child care. Also, "training" feels like something you'd want to keep funding but what do I know? I'm just a lowly non-billionaire.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/22/23472755/elon-musk-cuts-more-of-twitters-employee-perks

Elon Musk cuts more of Twitter’s employee perks.Company allowances for employee wellness, productivity, home internet, training and development, Outschool, daycare, and quarterly team activities have all been discontinued, per an internal memo I’ve seen. “Allowances will be reevaluated over time and may be added back when the company’s financial situation improves,” it reads. More hardcore!

 

[Static and Noise]

Huh, I really expected you to go with the $5 wrench.

The longer XKCD goes on, the more XKCD strips you'll find that fits certain situations in different ways?

 

[fenris_uy]

He'll do this, he told his team, by diverging from other messaging services and making it so Twitter users do not have to share actual phone numbers to communicate.

“You don’t have to give someone your phone number,” Musk told employees.

So, like Signal, or Telegram, or Google Talk, etc.

 

[same.dan]

Every news about Twitter: Is it dead yet?

 

[VinnieVega]

At this point, im just out of words about this whole situation. You could not get more incompetent than how Musk as dealt with this purchase.

 

[Jakelshark]

I can't imagine how frustrating it is to be at Twitter knowing that a lot of the problems Musk wants to "solve" have already been thought about at length with multiple alternate solutions developed, tested, and deployed.

Like this was a solved issue...

 

[Derecho Imminent]

The problem is figuring out how to sell blue verification without having to verify.

 

[Snark218]

You know what this whole escapade reminds me of? I finally realized it: it's like that libertarian town in New Hampshire that ended up infested by bears.

 

[robbdammit]

Musk wants to turn Twitter into WeChat, so that people are so dependent on Twitter go get thru their day (coms, subscriptions to other platforms, payments) that they cannot possibly be inconvenienced enough to leave the platform.