Twitter’s Twitter Blue program, which offers the much-desired blue badge in exchange for a $8 monthly charge, has been launched in full. Before, only accounts of famous people and organizations received the blue-tick, but today anyone who is ready to pay the monthly cost can get one. However, all of this has created its own set of issues, such as the fact that threat actors are now mimicking well-known individuals and are still given a “confirmed” status. While it is true that confirmed accounts can and have been compromised, the legacy verification procedure was designed to reduce false information. In the sense that a tweet sent from a verified account may be taken to be “genuine” and not sent by a person pretending to be a public figure. This distinction is a little bit more challenging for users now that the blue badge is being given out to everyone for a cost.
The new method of verification makes a mockery of the system and we are already seeing scammers take advantage of it. Fraudsters can now very easily dupe people into believing they are authentic and many could fall for scams or spread misinformation very quickly. Apart from checking follower counts, it is now very difficult to carry out further due diligence on account holders which places a huge threat on users and what is genuine. Users must take active caution when using the site now and steer clear of any requests for personal information or credentials. It is also worth noting that Twitter Blue will not contact you via an email requesting payment details as this can only be carried out via the app.