An FTC spokesperson said on Thursday. No company or its boss is above the law. Twitter on Wednesday implemented the restructuring announced by Musk for assigning verification ticks. So far it has been given by Twitter to celebrities, politicians and companies after a quiz. In the new system, anyone who pays $8 a month for a subscription gets approval. No identity check.
Either way, the tick looks the same. You can find out from the text whether you are interested in a previous, truly verified account or a newly purchased checkmark only after clicking on the icon.
Some users have used the new function to create fake accounts that look deceptively real: for example, basketball star LeBron James, gaming company Nintendo and former US President Donald Trump. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has apologized to Twitter users who, under a fake account, believed that insulin would be distributed free of charge in the future.
Following previous breaches at the FTC, Twitter had committed to, among other things, subjecting new functionality to a data protection and security test before it was made available. According to media reports, Musk assured employees in an email following the FTC warning that Twitter will do everything possible to comply with the agreement with the agency.
(SDA)