Twitter Security Chief Says Paid Account Verification System Is Not Perfect

Twitter's Head of Security and Integrity, Shake Roth (photo: Twitter rests Roth)

JAKARTA - Under Elon Musk's rule, Twitter Blue subscribers now have to pay 7.99 US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 125,000 per month to get a verification badge on their account.

This change is intended to allow other Twitter users to verify accounts which were previously difficult to obtain under Twitter's legacy system.

However, in a thread shared by Twitter's Head of Security and Integrity, Yoel Roth he acknowledged that the company may have to invest further in "identity verification" that goes beyond the paid verification system that will accompany Twitter Blue subscriptions.

"In the long term, I think we need to invest more in identity verification as a complement to proof of humanity. Paid Verification is a strong (imperfect) humanitarian signal, which helps fight bots and spam. But it's not the same as identity verification," Roth wrote. in twitter.

Verification! Impersonation! Twitter Blue! There’s a lot going on around identity on Twitter — let’s break down what our policies are, and some of the big questions we still need to answer…

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022

This thread created by Roth came about because of the recent large-scale impersonation. A number of verified celebrities have reportedly changed their account names and profile pictures to Elon Musk.

In response, Musk finally announced a new ban, in which accounts pretending to be someone else would be immediately suspended by Twitter.

Because of this, Roth said that going forward, Twitter will address impersonation by verified users by suspending accounts that engage in the practice.

However, when the new Twitter Blue subscription plan emerged, Roth revealed that impersonation could become more difficult to implement if there was an increase in verified users for Twitter to notice.

To address this, Roth said that Twitter would "increase proactive reviews of Blue Verified accounts showing signs of impersonating other users," and subsequently suspend them.

If another Twitter user finds the 'bogus' account, Roth asks the Twitter user to report the account involved in impersonation to the company.

Due to the potential for abuse, a report from The New York Times says that Twitter has decided to delay the rollout of the updated Twitter Blue system and Roth has now confirmed the news.

What's more, Roth also acknowledged that simply asking users to pay for their blue badge is not a very strong form of identity verification and that Twitter may need to do more in this area in the future.

"There is no solution to a perfect identity, and we are iterating quickly to find the best approach here," concludes Roth at the end of the thread he wrote.

No solution to identity is perfect, and we’re iterating quickly to come up with the best approach here. We appreciate all the feedback, and will share more as our work progresses.

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 8, 2022