As anyone with the brain capacity of a gnat could have predicted, emerald heir and nepo baby extraordinaire Elon Musk’s attempts to mess around with Twitter verification has led to a slew of fake profiles impersonating companies, media networks, and celebrities of all stripes. Of course, because the incredibly creepy loser who now runs one of the biggest social media platforms in the world has spent his entire life being told he’s actually a very clever little boy by people who were either paid by him or his father, he is yet to roll back on his embarrassing, short-sighted, and damaging decision. As things go even more wrong, it’s getting harder for celebrities who signed up for his scheme to justify their decision to back Twitter Blue – especially as they see the issues fake profiles are causing. Enter Ice T.
The legendary “6 in the Mornin'” and “Cop Killer” rapper may have paid for his blue checkmark, but that hasn’t stopped him from identifying a major problem with Musk’s idiotic plan: it will allow scammers and other predatory types to swindle unsuspecting users. Given Musk’s history of enabling predatory behavior in his companies, the way he casually destroys the lives of people on a whim, and his relationship with a notorious child sex trafficker, it’s unsurprising that he’s letting Twitter fall into the hands of these kinds of people – but still as depressing as it is avoidable.
This isn’t just a casual observation with nothing to back it, either. The data and experts also agree that since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, scams (specifically phishing scams) have been massively on the rise on the site, buoyed by the fact anyone can buy a blue checkmark. This is an issue that was raised countless times in the media prior to Twitter Blue going live (and likely in internal Twitter communications), but as we know – Musk will ignore evidence if it hurts his feelings. And, considering he’s proven over and over again that he’s an awfully sensitive man, it seems like the new, terrible verification system is here to stay, regardless of its issues. One could argue that it turns Twitter into a more egalitarian space that promotes free speech of all kind, but considering Musk bans journalists who say things he doesn’t like, that doesn’t seem likely.
Ice T isn’t the only celebrity (or company, for that matter) to critique Twitter’s new policy. Stephen King is famously antagonistic toward the shift in how people are verified, and often points out in no uncertain terms just how little he respects Musk and his ideas, much to the delight of those in the horror writer’s mentions. More importantly, from a financial standpoint at least, advertisers are not happy with the new direction the site has taken. Musk has tried to lie his way out of that problem too, but the facts speak for themselves: businesses don’t like it when someone with $8 and a sense of humor can wipe billions off their stock price, and his army of fanboys can’t stop that reality from hitting like a hurricane.
The ironic thing about all of this is that one of Musk’s alleged biggest issues with Twitter (aside from them fact-checking conservative accounts for spreading blatant and dangerous misinformation) was that the site had a huge chunk of bots impersonating users, thus inflating follower numbers and allowing scammers to look more legitimate as they appeared to have big followings. For once, this was a problem that he actually diagnosed accurately, but the way he’s gone about reshaping the social media giant shows that he clearly never cared about fake accounts. This makes sense as some estimate that nearly half of his followers are bots, and considering how desperate he is to be seen as influential and beloved, he is unlikely to cull those bots.
While unsuspecting users being scammed isn’t great, there are much darker and more worrying implications for all of this too. Online disinformation has only been growing in terms of its sophistication and importance in shaping our world, and by giving anybody the chance to impersonate once-trusted sources, Musk hasn’t just opened the floodgates, but prayed for rain too. Ice T was right about Twitter’s impersonation problem, but he only scratched the surface of this profound issue.