Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy

Friday marked the first full day Twitter’s new policies for verified accounts were applied – and the results were not pretty.

Twenty-four hours after blue checkmarks began to disappear from formerly verified Twitter accounts, chaos reigned on the website, with impersonation and false information running rampant and few people signing up for the service the changes were meant to promote.

The move came under new owner Elon Musk, who has pledged to make the struggling social media firm profitable by any means necessary – in this case, attempting to force users to pay for verification services that were previously free.

Under the original blue-check system, Twitter had roughly 400,000 verified usersand checks meant that Twitter had verified that users were who they said they were.

Under the new Twitter Blue program, individual users can pay $8 per month for a blue checkmark while organizations pay upwards of $1,000 monthly. The change has shifted the meaning of the check from an account that has been independently verified to one that paid a premium to help their tweets be seen by more people.

The rollout – and its results – have been chaotic. Here’s where things stood on Friday:

Elon taketh and he giveth away

Several high profile Twitter users and celebrities lost their verification status on Thursday, including Beyoncé, Pope Francis, and Oprah Winfrey. President Donald Trump – who has not tweeted since he was allowed to return to the platform after being banned – has also been unverified.

Some celebrity users – including basketball star LeBron James, author Stephen King and Star Trek’s William Shatner – pledged not to join Twitter Blue. All three still had blue checks on Friday after Musk said he paid for them himself.

“My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t,” wrote Stephen King on Twitter. “You’re welcome namaste,” replied Musk, who apparently gave it to the author for free.

‘Verified’ loses meaning

Blue checks for users on Friday included a popup message noting the account “is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number”. But verifying a phone number simply means that the user has a phone number and they verified that they have access to it – it does not confirm the person’s identity, raising concern about the veracity of such accounts.

Many took advantage of the new verification-free world on Twitter by changing their profile pictures and names to impersonate prominent figures, from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to the late Arizona Senator, John McCain. Others made prank tweets posing as legitimate news accounts to spread misinformation making fun of Musk.

The ability to pose as legitimate organizations and figures raised concerns that Twitter could lose its status as a platform for getting accurate, up-to-date information from authentic sources, including in emergencies.

Fake accounts claiming to represent the Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago’s Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation all began sharing messages early Friday falsely claiming that the city’s Lake Shore Drive – a major thoroughfare – would close to private traffic starting next month.

The genuine accounts for Lightfoot and the transportation agencies did not have a blue or gray check mark as of Friday. Lightfoot’s office said the city is aware of the fake accounts and “working with Twitter to resolve this matter”. At least one was suspended Friday.

And while is Twitter now offering gold checks for “verified organizations” and gray checks for government organizations and their affiliates, it was not always clear why some accounts had them Friday and others did not. Accounts from major transit systems in cities such as Paris and San Francisco as well as official weather trackers had lost their verification status as of Friday afternoon.

Many impacted agencies said they were awaiting more clarity from Twitter, which has sharply curtailed its staff since Musk bought the San Francisco company for $44bn last year.

Sloppy execution, few sign-ups

The roll out of Twitter Blue – from user response to its execution – has been a flop. Some pointed out that it appears the blue checkmarks were not fully removed from Twitter’s system, flickering on and off for days before removal.

Meanwhile, Twitter is continuing to push the program aggressively, telling advertisers that they are required to subscribe to Twitter Blue in order to continue running ads – at a time when cash flow from Twitter’s top advertisers has shrunk 65%.

Twitter has seemingly yet to greatly benefit from the massive change in policy, with various calculations of its Twitter Blue subscribers showing any additional sign-ups under the new rules have been inconsequential.

Independent researchers noted that according to publicly available information from Twitter’s API – which is now available by subscription only – just 28 new accounts signed up for Twitter Blue after the major push this week. Another report put the number closer to 400 new accounts. An independent analysis from Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer of software for tracking social media, found fewer than 5% of legacy verified accounts appear to have paid to join Twitter Blue.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.