NEW YORK (AP) — Tracking down accurate information about the Philadelphia election on Twitter used to be easy. The city commissioners’ account running the election, @phillyvotes, was the only one with a blue checkmark, a sign of authenticity.
But since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the verification mark has disappeared. This has made it harder to distinguish @phillyvotes from a list of random accounts not managed by the elections office but with very similar names.
The electoral commission applied weeks ago for a gray verification mark, Twitter’s new symbol to help users identify official government accounts, but has yet to hear back from Twitter, said commission spokesman Nick Custodian It’s unclear whether @phillyvotes is an eligible government account under Twitter’s new rules.
That’s concerning, Custodio said, because Pennsylvania has a primary election on May 16, and the commission uses its account to share important information with voters in real time. If the account remains unverified, it will be easier to impersonate (and harder for voters to trust) heading into Election Day.
Impostor accounts on social media are one of the many concerns election security experts have ahead of next year’s presidential election. Experts have warned that foreign or other adversaries may try to influence the election, either through online disinformation campaigns or by hacking election infrastructure.
Election administrators across the country have struggled to figure out how best to respond after Twitter owner Elon Musk killed the platform’s verification service, given that Twitter has been one of its most effective tools for communicating -se with the public.
Some are taking other steps that Twitter allows, such as purchasing verification marks for their profiles or applying for a special label reserved for government entities, but success has been mixed. Election and security experts say the inconsistency of Twitter’s new verification system is a misinformation disaster waiting to happen.
“The lack of clear verification and oversight on Twitter is a ticking time bomb for disinformation,” said Rachel Tobac, CEO of cybersecurity firm SocialProof Security. “This will confuse users, especially on important days like election days.”
The blue verification marks that Twitter once handed out to notable celebrities, public figures, government entities and journalists began disappearing from the platform in April. To replace them, Musk told users that anyone could pay $8 a month for an individual blue verification mark or $1,000 a month for a gold verification mark as a “verified organization.”
The change in policy quickly opened the door for pranksters to convincingly impersonate celebrities, politicians and government entities, who could no longer be identified as authentic. While some impostor accounts were clear jokes, others created confusion.
Fake accounts impersonating Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city’s Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation falsely claimed that the city was closing one of its major thoroughfares to private traffic. The fake accounts used the same photos, bio text and homepage links as the real ones. His posts racked up hundreds of thousands of views before being taken down.
Twitter’s new policy invites government agencies and certain affiliated organizations to apply to be tagged as officials with a gray check. But at the state and local level, qualified agencies are limited to “principal executive office accounts and principal agency accounts that oversee crisis response, public safety, law enforcement, and regulators,” the policy says.
The rules do not mention agencies that organize elections. So while Philadelphia’s main city government account quickly received its gray verification mark last month, the local election commission has not heard back.
Election offices in four of the nation’s five most populous counties — Cook County in Illinois, Harris County in Texas, Maricopa County in Arizona, and San Diego County — remain unverified, a search shows Twitter. Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, has been repeatedly attacked by election conspiracy theorists as the most populous and consequential county in one of the most closely divided political battleground states.
Some counties contacted by The Associated Press said they have minimal concerns about impersonation or plan to apply for a gray check later, but others said they have already applied and have not No response received from Twitter.
Even some state election offices are waiting for government labels. Among them is the office of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
In an April 24 email to Bellows’ communications director reviewed by The Associated Press, a Twitter representative wrote that “there was nothing to do as we continue to manually process applications from around the world.” The representative added in a later email that Twitter is “prepared to quickly enforce any impersonation, so please feel free to flag problematic accounts.”
An email sent to Twitter’s press office and a company security official seeking comment was met only with an automated reply of a poop emoji.
“Our job is to build public confidence,” Bellows told the AP. “Even a minor setback, such as not being able to ensure that our information on Twitter is verified, contributes to a less predictable and less secure environment.”
Some government accounts, including one representing Pennsylvania’s second-largest county, have bought blue checks because they were told they needed to continue posting on the platform.
Allegheny County posts ads for elections and jobs on Twitter, so the blue tag “was necessary,” said Amie Downs, the county’s director of communications.
When someone can buy verification and when government accounts aren’t labeled consistently, the verification mark loses its meaning, said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
Griswold’s office received a gray verification mark to maintain trust with voters, but he told the AP that he would not purchase verification for his personal Twitter account because it “doesn’t carry the same weight” that it does do once
Custodio, at the Philadelphia election commission, said his office would not buy verification either, even if he is denied a gray check.
“The blue or gold verification mark only verifies you as a paid subscriber and does not verify identity,” he said.
Experts and advocates who track election discourse on social media say Twitter’s changes not only encourage bad actors to run disinformation campaigns, but also make it harder for well-intentioned users to know what’s safe to share.
“Because Twitter drops the ball on verification, the burden will be on voters to verify that the information they’re consuming and sharing is legitimate,” said Jill Greene, director of voting and elections for Common Cause Pennsylvania.
This dampens an aspect of Twitter that until now has been seen as one of its strengths: allowing community members to come together to elevate information with authority, said Mike Caulfield, a research scientist at the Center for an Informed Public from the University of Washington.
“The first rule of a good online community user interface is ‘help the helpers.’ This is the opposite of that,” Caulfield said. “It takes a community of people who want to help improve good information and deprives them of the tools to make quick and accurate decisions.”
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