Putin’s Twitter trolls are buying blue check marks

The profiles spread Russian misinformation about Ukraine’s offensive war and fueled sentiment against Western support for the country, the Washington Post wrote Wednesday, citing findings from the US research group Reset.

The check marks for verified accounts used to be awarded by Twitter to celebrities, politicians or companies after verification. With tech billionaire Elon Musk as the new owner, users can buy it for $8 a month with a paid subscription. For the future, it has been announced that messages from subscription customers will be posted more visibly on Twitter. On Twitter, tweets can not only be displayed chronologically, but also selected by algorithms. This view may also contain messages from accounts that are not followed.

Musk, who has more than 129 million followers on Twitter, interacted with one of the accounts flagged by reset researchers, whose tweets subsequently gained views. Musk responded to a tweet claiming, among other things, that 157,000 Ukrainian military personnel and 2,458 NATO soldiers had died in the war in Ukraine, saying, “A tragic loss of life.” He later called on Twitter users to check the numbers. NATO soldiers are not participating in the war.

A few months ago, as a peace solution, Musk proposed holding UN-supervised votes on future membership in the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia, in violation of international law. He also proposed to recognize illegally occupied Crimea as part of Russia. At the same time, the Starlink systems of his company SpaceX provide internet coverage in Ukraine after Russian attacks on the infrastructure. However, he spoke out against military use of the technology. (SDA)

Source: Blick