Twitter, which declared ``all authentication is manual'', authenticates a painful mistake, a legislator impersonation account created by a reporter

Twitter, which resumed the authentication process of the subscription service `` Twitter Blue '' where anyone can put a blue check mark on the account, mistakenly authenticated a fake account created by Washington Post columnist Jeffrey Fowler. I understand that. Fowler questions the authentication process.

Twitter Blue not actually 'verifying' IDs, despite Elon Musk fix - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/05/twitter-blue-verification/

Mr. Fowler created the account of US Senator Edward J. Markey . Mr. Fowler created an account called @SenatorEdMarkey with the permission of the member himself and applied for registration of Twitter Blue.

Mr. Fowler prepared only a phone number authenticated account that meets the registration requirements for Twitter Blue and has been created for more than 90 days, plus a credit card. Mr. Fowler took over an account owned by a colleague that had not been used for years and changed the account name to '@SenatorEdMarkey'. I got a temporary T-Mobile phone number that can be purchased without a name or ID, registered it, and paid the Twitter Blue registration fee with a credit card.

At this time, Mr. Fowler seems to have expected that ``Twitter will ask me to prove my identity by uploading a photo of my license,'' but there was no such approach. it is. It seems that there was enough room for doubt that the registered e-mail address was not an official government address ending with 'senate.gov' and that Senator Markey's real account already existed, but he had no doubts. It was never approved and was considered 'verified' 7 days after applying.

As a result of this test, there are now two accounts of Mr. Marquee on Twitter. 'Twitter's current leadership has failed to protect the platform from misinformation, has failed to answer my simple questions about anti-fraud protocols, and has made this platform a threat to our democracy,' Markey said in a statement. It seems it's easier to get a blue check mark than to get a straight answer from Elon Musk, which is unacceptable.' . The fake account has been suspended after Mr. Fowler published the article.

For the second time, here are the two accounts side by side: pic.twitter.com/N5nXUbDQsn

—Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) January 5, 2023

In fact, this is the second time that Mr. Fowler has impersonated Mr. Marquee. Twitter Blue was reformed in November 2022, allowing anyone to obtain a blue check mark that had been limited to companies and celebrities until now. Can I create an official-like account?' I tried and wrote an article.

At this time, Congressman Marquee, who cooperated with Mr. Fowler, severely criticized Twitter's efforts to protect against false information, but CEO Mask said, ``Isn't your real account like a parody?'' . However, CEO Mask announced a policy to review the authentication process for authenticated accounts and declared that he would ``switch everything to manual''.

Sorry for the delay, we're tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week.

Gold check for companies, gray check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates.

Painful, but necessary.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022

Despite this, Fowler said, ``As far as I know, Twitter has never stated what is required when manually authenticating an account. The company has significantly reduced its workforce since it acquired Twitter, and it's unclear who will be doing the checks.Twitter has to do something to proactively discourage impersonation. It's clearly not enough,' he said.