Nintendo, Rockstar Games, Twitch, and Valve are just a few companies that have fallen victim to fake accounts popping up, all of which carry the little blue “verified” check mark. You see, anyone can now get a blue tick next to their name for only $8 thanks to a new policy implemented by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk. Before the new policy went into effect, the only way to get a blue check next to a Twitter handle was through actual verification. Verification is now completely worthless, as anyone can just pay a fee to get one. This new feature is causing all sorts of confusion among users. For instance, a “new” Nintendo of America account with a blue tick popped up on the social network, and one of its tweets featured Mario giving folks the finger. Obviously, most folks figured out pretty quickly it was a fake account, considering Mario would never give anyone the one-fingered Kentucky welcome, but still, it caused a bit of a hubbub. A fake Valve account was also created and had people thinking the firm’s “next competitive platform” was a project called “Richocet: Neon Prime” (thanks, Eurogamer). Rockstar and Twitch have also had fake accounts made in their name. Some accounts have been suspended, except for the “Twitch” account, due to it being a parody account. Yesterday, to help folks differentiate which accounts are legitimate, Twitter rolled out an “official” tag for users such as Nintendo and what have you. However, Musk decided he wasn’t fond of it and ditched the new, designated verification. In a tweet, Musk said that Twitter will “do lots of dumb things in the coming months,” and that it will “keep what works and change what doesn’t.” Whether changes are coming to the blue check system remains to be seen. However, in the meantime, you can find out whether a Twitter account has paid for a blue tick or if it was verified for other reasons by clicking the verified button on the user profile.
