Twitter Blue signups unavailable after raft of fake accounts
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San Francisco (AP): Twitter's relaunched premium service which grants blue-check verification labels to anyone willing to pay 8 a month was unavailable Friday after the social media platform was flooded by a wave of imposter accounts it itself had approved.
It's the latest whiplash-inducing change to the service where uncertainty has become the norm since billionaire Elon Musk took control two weeks ago. Prior to that, the blue check was granted to government entities, corporations, celebrities and journalists verified by the platform precisely to prevent impersonation. Now, anyone can get one as long as they have a phone, a credit card and 8 a month.
An impostor account posing as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. and registered under the revamped Twitter Blue system tweeted that insulin was free, forcing the Indianapolis company to post an apology. Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Musk's own companies Tesla and SpaceX were also impersonated, as well as the accounts of various professional sports and political figures.
For advertisers who have put their business with Twitter on hold, the fake accounts could be the last straw: Musk's rocky run atop the platform laying off half its workforce and triggering high-profile departures has raised questions about its survivability.
The impostors can cause big problems, even if they're taken down quickly.
They have created overwhelming reputational risk for placing advertising investments on the platform, said Lou Paskalis, longtime marketing and media executive and former Bank of America head of global media. Adding that with the fake verified brand accounts, a picture emerges of a platform in disarray that no media professional would risk their career by continuing to make advertising investments on, and no governance apparatus or senior executive would condone if they did.
Adding to the confusion, Twitter now has two categories of blue checks, and they look identical. One includes the accounts verified before Musk took helm. It notes that This account is verified because it's notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category. The other notes that the account subscribes to Twitter Blue.
But as of midday Friday, Twitter Blue was not available for subscription.
On Thursday, Musk tweeted that too many corrupt legacy Blue verification' checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months.
An email sent to Twitter's press address went unanswered. The company's communications department was gutted in the layoffs and Twitter has not responded to queries from The Associated Press since Oct. 27 when Musk took the helm.
Thursday night, Twitter also once again began adding gray official labels to some prominent accounts. It had rolled out the labels earlier this week, only to kill them a few hours later.
They returned Thursday night, at least for some accounts including Twitter's own, as well as big companies like Amazon, Nike and Coca-Cola, before many vanished again.
Celebrities also did not appear to be getting the official label.
Twitter is heavily dependent on ads and about 90% of its revenue comes from advertisers. But each change that Musk is rolling out or rolling back makes the site less appealing for big brands.
It has become chaos, said Richard Levick, CEO of public relations firm Levick. Who buys into chaos?
A bigger issue for Musk might be the risk to his reputation as a model tech executive, since the rollout of different types of verifications and other changes have been botched, Levick added.
It's another example something not very well thought out, and that's what happens when you rush, Levick said. Musk has been known as a trusted visionary and magician he can't lose that moniker and that's what's at risk right now, Levick said.
Twitter is a small part of total ad spending for the biggest companies that advertise on the platform. Google, Amazon and Meta account for about 75% of digital ads globally, with all other platforms combined making up the other 25%. Twitter accounts for about 0.9% of global digital ad spending, according to Insider Intelligence.
For most marketers on budgets, Twitter has always been that thing that is potentially too big to totally ignore but not quite big enough to care about, said Mark DiMassimo, creative chief of marketing agency DiGo.
None of this is a forever moral or ethical stand on the point of advertisers, he added. If Musk proves to be a civilizing force in the long run advertisers will come back if Twitter is still there. It's a for now' decision why be there now?
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Good beginning, talks to proceed: Manipur CM on meeting with Kuki Zo Council delegation
Imphal (PTI): Manipur Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh on Sunday said his meeting with a Kuki Zo Council delegation was a "good beginning" at restoring peace in the state and rebuilding trust between Meiteis and Kukis.
A day after holding the closed-door meeting with the delegation in Guwahati, he told reporters here that "the talk between the Kuki Zo Council (KZC) and the state government for the first time in nearly three years is a really good thing".
"The talks will proceed," the chief minister said.
More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.
The KZC, in a statement on Sunday, said the meeting commenced at 7 pm on Saturday and lasted around 1 hour and 45 minutes. The interaction was largely an ice-breaking session, it said.
Addressing the media on Sunday, the chief minister said, "In Manipur's situation, the most saddening part is that internally displaced persons (IDPs) are unable to return to their native homes..
"What is of utmost importance for their return is to rebuild the trust between the two communities. How long can central forces keep on guarding the population in some places? What is required is for the communities to forget the conflict and rebuild trust," Singh said.
Informing the reporters that the issue of IDPs of both sides returning to their places featured in the talks, the chief minister added that "at least we need to have a good beginning".
"I would like to thank the Kuki Zo Council for accepting the invitation for talks. We held the talks with the objective of bringing peace..
"My appeal to all is to restore peace and proceed with the concept of forgive and forget. My approach is bringing peace and building trust. There is no demand or commitment," Singh said.
Responding to media queries on the demand for a separate administration, he said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced that the territorial integrity of Manipur would remain intact.
As to the buffer zones terminology, Singh said, "There is no buffer zone for the government. During talks, I refer to it as a sensitive zone. Since there is no trust, security forces engage in checking at such sensitive zones..
He, however, asserted that "now is not the time for any kind of confrontation. If we want to bring peace, we must work honestly and more importantly, we must not focus on someone said this or someone said that".
The Kuki Zo Council, on the other hand, said that its delegation raised several key issues during the meeting in Guwahati on Saturday, all of which were attentively heard by the chief minister.
"Prominent among these (issues raised) were the urgent need to de-escalate the ongoing tensions between the Kuki and Tangkhul communities, and the imperative of ensuring justice for the victims of the conflict as a fundamental prerequisite for any meaningful peace and reconciliation process," it said.
The delegation also emphasised the importance of maintaining the sanctity of the buffer zone until a political settlement is reached and stressed the need to expedite a resolution to the ongoing Suspension of Operations talks to ensure durable and lasting peace in the region, the KZC statement said.
"The chief minister, in turn, shared his concerns, commitments, and the steps undertaken by his government in restoring peace and normalcy in Manipur. He expressed high appreciation for the KZC's initiative and its bold step in engaging with him during this challenging period," it said.
