Twitter Accidentally Verified A Fake Congressional Candidate

One of the goals behind verified accounts on social media platforms is that it lets users know that this is indeed the person that they are interacting with. In a way, that blue checkmark creates a sense of security and sort of guarantees that the person is who they say they are, which can be important for individuals and companies whose voice might carry significant impact.

However, it seems that Twitter’s verification system needs a bit of work because in a bid to test Twitter’s system, a high school student created a fake Twitter account where he posed as a congressional candidate known as Andrew Walz. The problem is that Walz does not exist and is a completely fabricated account and personality that the student generated as he was apparently bored over the holidays.

However, to his surprise, it seemed that Twitter bought into the profile where the company eventually verified it and gave him the much-coveted blue checkmark. Previously, Twitter had been criticized where they stated that they would not verify candidates unless they won their primaries. The company later reversed course where they said that they will be verifying candidates to help improve information for voters on the platform.

Twitter did not state the reason as to how a fake candidate got verified, but when they were notified that it was a fake account, they suspended it and released a statement which reads, “The creation of a fake candidate account is in violation of our rules and the account has been permanently suspended.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Twitter