WEBVTT - Bonus Episode - RIP Twitter: Elon Musk Blows Up Twitter Verification 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.520 So this week's episode of Internet Hate Machine, it's all 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.480 about a coordinated impersonation campaign on Twitter where trolls from 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.959 four Chance started fake Twitter accounts meant to mimic black women. 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.640 They used stolen pictures and set up accounts using really 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.840 bad a A V like bad impersonations of black women 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.680 on Twitter to make it seem like black feminists were 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.800 promoting a campaign to end the holiday Father's Day. In reality, 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.920 these people from Fortune we're trying to exploit and drive 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.920 a wedge between communities of black and white feminists online 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:36.400 to cause confusion and chaos and basically make all feminists 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.080 look bad and look like folks whose issues could not 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.240 be taken seriously. Now, this situation really shows the implications 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.240 of impersonation on social media platforms like Twitter. In this case, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.760 impersonation was being used to destabilize online communities and in 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.000 an attempt to derail them. So and Father's Day was 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.920 kind of a niche example, but we also talked about 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.760 some other examples, like white supremacists using Twitter at a 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.200 pope is as Black Lives Matter activists in order to 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.840 call for looting and violent during protests back in and 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.480 like Russian Assets and personating black people to try to 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.240 derail the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.480 which I know is something that I reference a ton 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.000 because to me, it's one of those big, glaring examples 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.400 of exactly what happens when online destabilization tactics like impersonation 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.840 are not taken seriously. And the people who run platforms, 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.320 they knew this was a thing, and yet they pretty 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.840 much did nothing. They did not make it harder to 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.240 use impersonation as a tactic to cause chaos and destabilize things, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:36.880 And the choice to do nothing pretty much allowed it 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:38.840 to be used on a bigger and bigger scale that 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.480 could be used to impact more and more people. You know, 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.080 this is a tried and true thing when it comes 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.800 to online harms. The harm starts with people who are 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.200 most marginalized. Nothing is done, and then it's everyone's problem. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:54.520 And the women who were impacted by destabilization tactics online 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.520 like and Father's Day, we're super vocal about what they 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.200 were experiencing. They had been talking about the hor ms 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.800 of impersonation online for a while. And I just think 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.320 that someone with power, that someone with the power to 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.919 do something or make a change, really should have listened 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.520 and taken them seriously because we might not be where 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.600 we are today. So while recording that episode on end 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.720 Father's Day, Elon Musk had just announced a plan to 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.280 really blow up verification via Twitter Blue subscriptions. Essentially, if 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.160 people paid eight dollars for Twitter Blue, they'd get a 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.880 blue checkmark verifying them. Elon Musk tweeted that this was 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.320 going in democratize Twitter power to the people, he tweeted. Initially, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.400 it seems like the plan to prevent impersonation was to 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.720 introduce a separate official badge that Twitter said would be 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.560 applied to government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.120 and some public figures. But then Musk quickly changed his 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.919 mind and killed the official badge only a few hours 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.160 after it was introduced and rolled out, and so when 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:59.760 paid verification did launch, it did so without that official badge. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.720 So basically, when you clicked on a blue check mark, 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.480 it would tell you whether that account was verified because 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.560 they were a public figure, you know, like they had 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.600 been verified before, or if they had been verified because 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.440 they subscribed to Twitter Blue and paid eight dollars. But 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.560 there wasn't really a way to determine that just from 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.800 looking at tweets and a feed, you would need to 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.000 actually click into that profile on that beach to determine 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.480 whether or not that blue check was because somebody is 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.799 who they say they are, or because somebody had eight 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.720 dollars to spend. And this seemed like a weird, potentially 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.840 disastrous move on a platform where we already know impersonation 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.800 is a big problem. And just a few days after 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.800 our episode on End Father's Day and Twitter Impersonation aired, 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.560 the full implications became very clear. It was a disaster. 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.600 Letting anyone pay eight dollars to appear to be a 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.800 verified user was pretty chaotic, and it showed this past 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.480 week because users began creating fake accounts impersonating brands, athletes, 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.200 and officials. Here's just a brief rundown of what we 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.800 saw on Twitter. Somebody in per snated basketball player Lebron 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.480 James and announced that he was requesting a trade. A 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.440 spoof Nintendo account tweeted an image of Mario giving us 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.840 the finger. And a really interesting example is the pharmaceutical 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.520 company Eli Lake that makes insulin for people's diabetes. A 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.800 verified Eli Lily account tweeted insulin is now free, which 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.840 forced the real Eli Lily to apologize for the misleading 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.039 tweet because insulin is not free, and it kind of 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.000 is an interesting thing watching a healthcare company clear up 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.440 the misconception that oh, no, no, no, don't worry our 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.960 life saving insulin that people actually need to live will 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.440 never be free. Don't worry about that in correct, And 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.040 all of this led to Eli Lily stuck plummeting amidst 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.400 all the chaos. Now, look, I am obviously not losing 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.600 sleep over corporations and brands like Eli Lily losing money 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.480 or jeopardizing their brand safety. I don't really care about that. 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.400 But something that we learned really clearly from conversations around 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.320 impersonation during the end Father's Day campaign is that even 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.320 though these trolls were trying to destabilize feminist spaces online, 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.000 they did it in ways that we're kind of jokey 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.840 or over the top, like over the top twezza about 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.440 why we need to end Father's Day red as kind 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.600 of funny, and it made it easy to laugh at 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:15.640 the whole thing and easy to just cast the whole 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.360 thing off as a joke or a troll. The very 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.279 serious nature of bad actors being so easily able to 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.799 hijack and to stabilize online discourse was kind of lost 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.640 and how absurd the whole thing was. Like, I remember 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.800 actual tech journalists writing about end Father's Day as just 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.919 this big jokey troll, and I'm worried that we have 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.880 not really learned a lot, and that we're still talking 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.720 about the threats posed by an impersonation as a big joke. 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.240 And yeah, of course I think it's pretty funny to 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.840 see Mario giving me the finger, or to see a 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.000 fake George Bush tweeting at fake Tony Blair about war crimes. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.400 Of course, I'm only human. But let's keep in mind 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.960 that this ship will be funny before it becomes very 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:59.400 very serious. For instance, Jason Kessler, the white supremacist behind 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.760 the twenties and Team Unite the Right march on August 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.920 seventeen in Chlottesville, Virginia, which left protester Heather Higher dead 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.120 and dozens other injured, was able to pay eight dollars 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.640 to get verified via Twitter blue this week. You might 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.680 recall that Jason Kessler, back in twenties seventeen was verified 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.640 on Twitter, and when people were like, hey, Twitter, why 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.280 are you verifying white supremacist Jason Kessler. The company responded 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.520 not by taking away his verification, but by pausing verification 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.839 altogether for almost four years. Twitter set in a statement 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.480 back then verification was meant to authenticate identity and voice, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.320 but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.160 of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.560 and need to resolve it. We have paused all general 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.400 verifications while we work, and we'll be back to report soon. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.200 So obviously it's not like the old verification worked perfectly. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.640 You know, it wasn't super clear if verification was meant 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.600 to be about preventing impersonation like they said in their statement, 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:57.280 or an endorsement. And paradoxically, Twitter has taken verification away 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.000 as a kind of punishment for breaking the terms of service. 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.360 They did this to extremist right wing troll my Loganopolis, 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.400 after he tweeted at somebody quote you deserve to be harassed, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.280 and so I note, we're actually doing an entire episode 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.400 about Milo and the harassment campaign that he led against 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.880 actor Leslie Jones that eventually got him permanently booted from 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.040 the platform next week. So definitely check it out if 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.360 you want to know more about Milo. But in addition 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.880 to Jason Kessler, other extremist accounts shelled out eight dollars 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:27.880 for verification, like the account lives of TikTok, which is 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.520 known for leading dangerous harassment campaigns against just regular people 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.200 and architect of the idea of the alt right, who 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.920 was also famous for being punched in the face. White 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.360 supremacist Richard Spencer, is now verified through purchasing Twitter Blue 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:43.880 So I think it really raises the question of what 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.920 verification is meant to mean and do you really want 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.160 to have hateful extremists be verified with a blue check 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.320 that very well may allow them to successfully build up 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.320 their platform to spread that level of extremism. And let's 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.480 not forget that all of this is happening just a 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.640 few days after an election where all the races are 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.680 still yet to be called. Letting folks spend eight dollars 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.560 to verify their account while votes are still being counted 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.200 could have very bad results. A verified account impersonating Arizona 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.080 candidate for governor Carrie Lake tweeted that she had won 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.040 her race even before that race had been called, and 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.320 now MPR is even advising their journalists to stop giving 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.280 out their Twitter handles on air, but to not outright 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.200 delete their Twitter accounts because someone could just pay eight 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.840 dollars to impersonate them. So this was obviously a disaster, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.040 and only a few days after rolling out Twitter Blue, 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.880 Twitter renounced they were pausing it. And I think it 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.320 really demonstrates what's really at stake here. Twitter is such 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.559 a different kind of social media platform. I think it's 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.000 one of the most important and powerful platforms in terms 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.920 of getting news out there quickly. You know, Facebook and 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.240 Instagram don't really allow for news to travel as quickly 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.080 or efficiently as a platform like Twitter does. You know, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.200 there's a reason why folks like Donald Trump and my 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.679 Loganopolis were Twitter super users, and why when they were 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.800 kicked off of Twitter there reached an engagement in stock 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.839 really plummeted. You know, there's a reason why President Biden 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.720 uses Twitter to announce new updates, not Tumbler, and it's 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.160 because Twitter is uniquely powerful. I also just think that 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.320 it being a text based platform is really important to 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.760 why it's such a unique platform. You know, you don't 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.240 really need to be camera ready or off the cuff 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.360 engaging to show up on Twitter the way that you 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.400 might need to on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube. For 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.680 the barriers are just different to participating, which invites folks 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.680 to show up there more. And I think that's why 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.040 you see it as a place where journalists and academics 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.640 and researchers and activists all show up. So my opinion 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.200 about what's going on with Twitter is that I think 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.920 Elon Musk is deeply invested in destabilizing Twitter as a 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280 source where people can build power and build a voice. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.440 And I think that he's specifically doing this to curry 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.600 favor with extremists and right wing types who have rightly 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.320 clocked this kind of potential for power building on Twitter 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.680 as a threat. You know, Twitter has been used successfully 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.600 to build movements that call lout of institutions and the powerful. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.560 We've seen movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.000 explode on platforms like Twitter that lead to powerful people 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.959 having to face actual accountability. We've seen journalists use Twitter 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.920 to hold people accountable and marginalized people who might not 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.880 have had the easiest time building power or a voice, 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.160 and traditional spaces have been able to build up platforms 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.160 on Twitter. Like Twitter, it's kind of our domain as 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.920 marginalized people. And so it is not surprising to me 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.600 that Twitter has been this battleground for the culture wars, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.000 and because we are winning, I think Elon Musk is 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.320 wanting to blow the whole thing up. What's really fascinating 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.440 to me is how Elon Musk has been able to 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.000 frame this as him, you know, trying to stick it 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:42.720 to the elites and look out for the little guy, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.240 like a literal billionaire is trying to convince us that 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.600 he is not one of the elites. Today, Elon Musk tweeted, 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.800 as Twitter pursues the goals of elevating the citizen journalist, 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.559 media elite will try everything to prevent that from happening. 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.240 Mainstream media will still thrive, but increased competition from citizens 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.080 will cause them to be more accurate as their oligopolie 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:06.199 on information is disrupted. And honestly, we have already seen 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.800 how well that worked out this week. It wasn't with 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.920 more accurate content flooding Twitter, but with scams and impersonations 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.600 running wild. And let's be real, Elon Musk can say 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.160 that he's for the little guy and against the media elite. 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.000 But what he's really against is journalists who dig into 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.680 his companies and his practices. You know, this is the 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.320 same Elon Musk who has gone to war with journalists 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.240 for reporting critically about Tesla, has cracked down on his 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.560 own employees for talking about unionization efforts, and has even 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.960 asked his own customers to not speak critically about Tesla's 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.000 on social media. So much for Elon Musk being the 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.160 self proclaimed free speech absolutist, And it does kind of 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.520 feel like we're watching the implosion of the platform in 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.160 real time. Elon told Twitter staff, or what's left of them, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.240 because so many of them have resigned, that bankruptcy is 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.720 not out of the question for Twitter. And if we 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.400 do lose Twitter, I can't help but mourn because I 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.480 know this will be a loss for black folks and 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.600 women and lgbt Q folks and trans folks who have 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.600 been able to successfully use the platform to build movements 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:11.040 and enact real, meaningful change. Despite all that, I am heartened. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.800 But what I know to be true that Elon Musk 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.040 and his band of sick athans and all of his 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.520 billions of dollars will never be more powerful than us 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.319 and our voices. So, whether it's on Twitter or some 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:29.280 other platforms, I know that will always endure. Internet Hate 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.280 Machine is a production of cool Zone Media. More podcasts 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.720 from cool Zone Media, check out our website cool zone 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:36.800 media dot com, or find us on the I Heart 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.040 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.