Twitter at War With Fake Accounts (Again)

Six fake accounts managed to pass through Twitter’s verification protocol.

Last Tuesday, Twitter admitted a dreadful flaw: some fake accounts managed to slide past its security algorithms without getting noticed.

It seems the force majeur took place after Twitter decided to restart the account verification algorithms. Now, there are six user categories to pick from when getting verified, which include:

• Government officials.
• Journalists and media.
• Brands and companies.
• Organizations and activists.

And so on. 

However, a data science specialist from US Conspirador Norteño, found out that 6 accounts were obviously fake. Reportedly, they were registered at the same time, had the same follower pool, and showed zero activity since the registration moment.

And yet they got verified. Even though their profile pics were obviously stolen. This is how unmasking took place:

Meet @aykacmis, @degismece, @anlamislar, @aykacti, @kayitlii, and @donmedim, a sextet of blue-check verified Twitter accounts created on June 16th, 2021. None has yet tweeted and, all have roughly 1000 followers (and mostly the *same* followers). 

Once the issue became a public outcry subject, Twitter took its ban-hammer and banished 5 of them into non-existence. The 6th account became defunct on its own.

Meanwhile, the potential “twitter Killer” Getter seems to have no verification criteria at all. Launched on July 1, 2021, by Trump’s spokesman Jason Miller, Getter poses itself as a platform where freedom of speech is fundamental.

At the moment, Getter is brimming with fake accounts impersonating politicians, brands, media outlets, and so on. Even Trump himself tracked down an account that pretended to be him, posting nonsensical “geets” (local analogue for “tweets”).