After the firing incident at the Bathinda Military Station on 12 April, a Twitter user called 'Saffron Diaries' shared a tweet claiming that 'a Sikh soldier killed four Hindu soldier belonging to 18 Horse regiment', giving the incident a communal colour.
When this tweet was first put out, there was paucity of information around the incident, but this particular tweet went massively viral. Several other users copy-pasted the same 'information' online.
But why? Could the tiny blue tick next to the profile be the reason? The blue tick that was earlier linked to a profile's credibility and is now just a paid accessory on the platform.
This isn't the first time that an account with a blue badge has shared dis/misinformation on the platform.
But after Elon Musk took over the microblogging site, several accounts/profiles, that have a history of sharing hateful content and misinformation, have got the blue tick in exchange of a payment of Rs 900 or $11 per month for Android and iOS devices. The platform's website pricing for the same is Rs 650 or $8 monthly.
Rs 900/Month to Spread Hate and Misinformation?
Following the rollout of Twitter Blue subscription plan, many users, who have been called out for spreading mis/disinformation in the past, received a blue checkmark.
For instance MeghUpdates, an account that has shared several rumours, false political, and communally charged claims in the past, now carries a blue checkmark next to its name.
Another account named 'Sanghis United,' which, too, was found sharing posts targeting political leaders and false communal claims now has a blue tick next to its name.
On 16 March, the account shared a scripted video of a person beating a burqa-clad man over suspicion of child theft as a real incident.
The video generated around 15,000 views and was later fact-checked by The Quint. The post is still available on the user's account.
Other accounts namely, Tharki Lehru and Wokeflix, have consistently posted objectionable and derogatory content, some of which is extremely communally charged. These accounts now have a blue checkmark.
(Swipe right to view all the images.)
Both these accounts now carry a blue tick next to their usernames.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
NewsGuard, an organisation that tracks misinformation, in a recent study analysed around 25 Twitter accounts (verified by Twitter Blue) and found them to be linked to a website that had spread false information in the past.
These accounts posted around 141 tweets (original and quote tweets) which carried false, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims. The tweets had about 2.7 crore views and garnered around 760,000 likes and retweets.
Prateek Waghre, Policy Director, Internet Freedom Foundation, says that for a majority of people the blue mark still carries the same credibility it once did, and that could be a problem.
"While for active users, the authenticity of it might have already been lost, but for a majority of people the blue check will carry the same credibility until they realise that is not necessarily a sign of authenticity anymore."Prateek Waghre, Policy Director, Internet Freedom Foundation
Not the First Time, Then Why the Concern?
Here's the answer:
One of the benefits of the subscription is that the Twitter Blue accounts will get priority in conversations and search.
Moreover, if a Twitter Blue account interacts with a tweet, it will receive a small boost.
Musk reiterated this on Twitter and stated that Twitter will prioritise replies by a people a user follows, to verified accounts (Twitter Blue), and then unverified accounts.
Waghre says that this approach could worsen the imbalance that already exists on the platform. He highlights how the approach can go beyond Twitter and other platforms might try to do the same thing, especially if it's an earning potential.
"Then running distribution networks like IT cell would get more expensive. To the extent that whoever has more resources is going to get an even larger share of at least the benefits, if I can call them that. So, it is going to skew the distribution even further in a heavily skewed status quo."Prateek Waghre, Policy Director, Internet Freedom Foundation
The 'Imposter' Among Us
Several users such as Dr Nimo Yadav (parody account of Nirav Modi) and Rofl Gandhi 2.0 (parody account of Rahul Gandhi) have a huge following on the social media platform. Now, they also have a blue badge.
There is also concern around parody accounts. A barrage of these were verified when Twitter Blue subscription was first introduced.
Several accounts (with blue ticks) changed their usernames, impersonating Musk, George Bush among others. This led Musk to clarify that parody accounts would need to mention the word "parody" in their names.
On the same day, Twitter halted the subscription plan due to a significant increase in parody accounts.
Experiencing the Twitter 'Blue(s)'
What is interesting is that even though Musk has repeated the term 'verification', there is no true verification in the process as setting up a Twitter Blue only requires a confirmed phone number and no official ID. When a user pointed out the same, Musk replied to the tweet with "$7".
The previous system verified the accounts that fit in the category of authentic, notable, and active, including public figures, journalists, and government officials.
The users were also required to submit their government identification documents, provide evidence to support notability, and were required to give a contact number and email address.
However, these are no longer required thanks to Twitter Blue.
With the air of transparency and credibility slowly disappearing around verified accounts, the platform has opened the path for more misinformation and hate speech. Musk replacing the various criteria of verification with money led him to built a platform which he intended to destroy in the first place.
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