Senator Ed Markey has a few questions for Elon Musk. Earlier today, Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Washington Post was able to successfully impersonate the senator and clinch a blue checkmark, putting into question (yet again) the effectiveness of Musk’s latest Twitter verification process.
After “a spare iPhone, a credit card and a little creativity,” Fowler was able to place the blue checkmark next to the fake verified account posted under the username @realedmarkey. The test was done with the permission of Markey, who has criticized big tech for years.
Twitter appeared to have paused the $8 Twitter Blue verification program after the Post published its test and as mock celebrity and brand impersonations took over the platform’s feeds.
Following the identity coup, Markey (D-Mass.) penned a letter to Musk, and slammed the Twitter CEO for the company’s unraveling.
“Safeguards such as Twitter’s blue checkmark once allowed users to be smart, critical consumers of news and information in Twitter’s global town square,” Markey wrote. “But your Twitter takeover, rapid and haphazard imposition of platform changes, removal of safeguards against disinformation, and firing of large numbers of Twitter employees have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the Wild West of social media.”
