Sen. Markey Warns Musk After Twitter Blue Chaos: ‘Fix Your Businesses’
Elon Musk is known for picking fights on Twitter. On Sunday he received a noteworthy counterattack.
The brawl began on Friday when Senator Ed Markey tweeted a complaint about how easy it was for someone to impersonate them with Twitter Blue, a new $8 monthly subscription service.
In his case it was her Washington Post This is for demonstration purposes, to show how easy it was to use Twitter Blue, which allows anyone to get the friendly tick next to their name that used to indicate who was identity verified by Twitter.
Musk, who sees a recession coming, says Twitter needs to rely less on advertising and more on subscriptions to survive. But Twitter Blue, after it went live on Wednesday, quickly spawned a wave of impersonators trolling everyone from drug company Eli Lilly (which appeared to be saying insulin is now free) to NBA legend LeBron James (who apparently demanding a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers). ).
The service was suspended until Friday, but Musk indicated on Saturday that he will “probably” return late next week, presumably after the impersonation issues are resolved.
Markey tweeted on Friday: “A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me – soliciting responses from @elonmusk who puts profits over people and his debts for spreading disinformation.” to stop. Twitter needs to explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”
musk answered“Maybe it’s because your real account sounds like a parody?”
He added shortly after: “And why does your pp have a mask!?” This was referring to the lawmaker, who wore a face mask on his Twitter profile picture.
Then came the counterattack. Markey replied on Sunday to Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and now owns Twitter:
“One of your businesses is subject to an FTC Consent Order. Auto safety guard NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you spend your time fighting battles online. Fix your businesses. Or Congress will.”
Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, also shared a letter he sent to Musk on his website Friday. It reads in part:
“Apparently, due to Twitter’s lax verification practices and apparent need for cash, anyone could pay $8.00 and impersonate someone on your platform. Selling the truth is dangerous and unacceptable. Twitter needs to explain how this happened and how it will prevent it from happening again.
“Safeguards like Twitter’s blue tick once enabled users to intelligently and critically consume news and information on Twitter’s global marketplace. But your Twitter takeover, the rapid and indiscriminate rollout of platform changes, the lifting of safeguards against disinformation, and the firing of large numbers of Twitter employees have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the social media wild west. This is unacceptable. Twitter and its leaders have a responsibility to the public to ensure the platform does not become a breeding ground for manipulation and deception.”
He added a list of questions about Twitter Blue and the whole idea of paid verification with blue ticks.
Markey has scrutinized tech giants for years, and he’s given it Washington Post Permission to use Twitter Blue to attempt to impersonate him.
That Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has also fought with Musk on Twitter.
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