One of the big changes that Elon Musk made following his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was a monthly subscription service for the trademark Blue checkmark synonymous with the platform. Before the acquisition, Twitter independently verified and awarded certain accounts based on them meeting certain requirements. The new $7.99 service enables anyone to pay to have the blue checkmark without undergoing a review to confirm if they meet the criteria. The new pay-for-verification system rolled out Wednesday. Unfortunately, the new system has led to numerous fake accounts of notable high-profile individuals and companies. This includes several gaming-related companies such as Nintendo, Valve, Rockstar, and Twitch.
A fake Nintendo of America advertised an unannounced Super Mario Galaxy game. Another tweet from the account was an image of Mario giving the middle finger.
The fake verified Valve account ‘announced’ Ricochet: Neon Prime. It’s being billed as the “next competitive platform” from the company behind the Half-Life series and leading online digital games store Steam. The tweet spawned its own thread on Resetera before users realized it was fake and locked it.
The ‘verifed’ Twitch account ‘announced’ a new revenue split for creators. The tweet was retweeted hundreds of times.
To combat the confusion, Twitter temporarily introduced the ‘Official’ label. This would be used to differentiate an authentic account from others. The ‘Official’ label was given to certain accounts including ones for selected government agencies, commercial companies, major media outlets and some public figures. Hours later, Twitter scrapped the system.
Musk addressed the situation in a tweet, saying: