UX says he’s creating a new profile label to show accounts that are parodies of a person or organization. The company says it “designed these labels to increase transparency and to ensure that users are not misled into thinking that such accounts are part of a gaming business.”
From now on, accounts will be able to add the parody label voluntarily, but X suggests that it will eventually become mandatory.
We issue profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts and their content on our platform. We designed these labels to increase visibility and ensure that users are not fooled into thinking that such accounts are part of a business…
— Safety (@Safety) January 10, 2025
This may sound like ancient history at this point, but back when it was still called Twitter, the social network had a clever way to distinguish between legitimate accounts and mock accounts: The blue check mark. The badge was well established as a sign of authenticity; users knew to be suspicious of any account representing a prominent person who did not display that blue check mark. It was a simple heuristic that people understood intuitively, and it meant it wasn’t right explain that the account was satirical, a joke.
Of course, when Elon Musk took the platform he decided to take a sledgehammer to the verified user system of Twitter. Musk felt that the check mark, which was reserved for famous people like journalists and celebrities, left too much room for people he believed did not deserve it. Neo-nazis and other queer figures were also not given a check mark and conservatives feel the program is biased against them. Allowing anyone to have a check mark would eliminate class, making everyone equal, or so the thinking goes. It also had to deal with the bots problem by increasing credit card accounts.
Well, it didn’t go that way, and the blue check marks on the X just mean that the account pays a monthly fee. Anyone can buy it—seemingly without the need to verify that their real identity matches the name on the account—and X was forced to rebuild an old verification system after fraudsters created dozens of fake verified accounts to create annoying blanks under the account names. like George W. Bush and Joe Biden. Now, companies and government officials have their own separate badges—companies can pay tens of thousands every year to get corporate check marks for their employees, and accounts related to government officials or organizations have silver check marks.
What’s worse is that X enables verified users to earn income from the platform, which creates bad incentives for abuse. Users like @CharlieKNews and @TuckerCNews post “verified” tags and slander celebrities to trick users into engaging with them. Many of these accounts appear to be random people who steal content from others or create questionable stories to farm and earn money. For individuals in countries where wages are very low, it can be good money, too, and more than the cost of a monthly entrance fee.
The new parody badges are another way X is trying to solve the problem it created for itself. It may have taken the company a few years, but it is essentially back to where it started before. Except this time it’s too bad because to explain that the account is a parody makes it a bit shocking.
All of this lowers the value of the user platform, but X lost most of its advertising revenue after Musk took over and needed money from users paying for tags, so this is what we get.