Elon Musk Finally Realizes That Verification Requires More Than A Credit Card, Planning To Make Users Upload Gov’t ID
As you'll surely recall, Elon's first big brilliant idea upon taking over Twitter was to conflate two separate offerings that Twitter had: Twitter Blue, a premium upsell with extra features (some of which were useful) with Twitter's blue check verification program, which was created to help more well known users avoid impersonation. The original blue check system was far from perfect, but it was actually a verification program, in which Twitter went through something of a process to make sure an account actually belonged to the person who claimed to be behind it.
Elon merged the two, took away all the legacy" bluechecks and basically gave them to anyone willing to pay $8/month. It hasn't gone well. There have been multiple stories of impersonation, while the bluecheck now seems to symbolize foolish Elon Musk fans with poor decision making ability. Or, you know, neo Nazis.
Now, many months later, it seems that Musk is finally coming around to the realization that maybe verification" requires more than a functioning credit card.
Of course, as per how things work with Elon, he's choosing to do it in a sketchy manner. Engadget reports that ExTwitter is now experimenting with a new ID Verified" option, powered by one of the many 3rd party services that provide ID validation, Au10tix, which makes users upload a government issued ID and a selfie.
Owji, who often uncovers unreleased features in X, first spotted an ID verified" badge on Musk's profile earlier this month. Now, he's discovered an in-app message detailing how it works, suggesting that it may be getting closer to an official launch. Verify your account by providing government-issued ID," it says. This usually takes about 5 minutes." It explains that users will need to provide a photo of their ID and a selfie.
It seems X is partnering with a third-party identity intelligence" company Au10tix on the feature. The fine print notes that information shared for verification will be seen by Au10tix as well as X. X will keep ID images, including biometric data, for up to 30 days" and will use the information for the purposes of safety and security, including preventing impersonation."
There are a few of these services out there and... they're not exactly known for being particularly reliable.
Still, it will be interesting to see how many of Elon's groupies will be thrilled about having to upload a government issued ID to the company. They seem to trust him implicitly, but they also seem to be the sorts of folks who often don't really like to give up their real identities.
Meanwhile, does anyone really feel comfortable that if a user who uploaded his or her ID to exTwitter does something to piss off Elon that he wouldn't use information regarding their identity against them?
So, once again, Elon seems to have realized that his way of doing things doesn't really work, which brings him all the way back around to the way that Twitter used to do things, but with an extra layer of stupidity/danger involved. It's not the first time that's happened, nor will it be the last.