{"id":163,"date":"2017-02-11T21:24:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T21:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/webliteracy\/chapter\/verifying-twitter-identity\/"},"modified":"2020-03-17T19:53:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:53:11","slug":"verifying-twitter-identity","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/webliteracy\/chapter\/verifying-twitter-identity\/","title":{"raw":"Verifying Twitter Identity","rendered":"Verifying Twitter Identity"},"content":{"raw":"One\u00a0relatively common form of misinformation is the fake celebrity retweet. Sometimes this happens by accident--a person mistakenly retweets a parody account as real. Sometimes this happens by design, with an account faking a retweet. Here are some tips to make sure that the tweet you are looking at on Twitter<\/em> is from the person you are attributing it to.\n

Twitter <\/em>Identity Basics<\/h2>\nWith Twitter<\/em>, accounts are generally (although not always) run by a single person. However, unlike Facebook<\/em>, Twitter<\/em> does not enforce a \"real name\" policy, which makes it easy for one person to run multiple accounts, and to run accounts under different names. In fact, an important part of Twitter<\/em> culture is the constellation of parody accounts, bots, and single issue accounts that amuse and inform Twitter<\/em> subscribers.\n\nAt the same time, it's easy to get confused. As an example, consider the account of Representative Jack Kimble. Here's a typical tweet:\n\n\"\"\n\nFigure 71<\/a>\n\nIf you're a liberal, looking at this tweet may get your blood boiling. How can anyone possibly believe this? Especially a Representative?\n\nScanning\u00a0the Twitter bio doesn't help.\n\n\"\"\n\nFigure 72<\/a>\n\nHere we see that he's from the 54th District of California and he's got a book out. Now if we're reading carefully we might notice some fishy things here: his book,\u00a0Profiles in Courageousness<\/em>,\u00a0seems like a parodic re-titling of Jack Kennedy's\u00a0Profiles in Courage<\/em>. \"E pluribus unum,\" which means \"From the many, one,\" is translated to \"1 nation under God\".\n\nOh, also: California only has 53 districts<\/a>.\n\nUnfortunately, you'll likely be in such a huff about the comments that you won't notice any of these things. So what is a general purpose indicator that you need to slow down? In most cases, it's going to be the absence of a \"verified account\" marker.\n

Checking Verified Accounts<\/h2>\nAs a counter-example to \"Representative Kimble,\" here's a real representative, Jason Chaffetz, from Utah's 3rd District.\n\n\"\"\n\nFigure 73<\/a>\n\nThat little blue seal with the check mark (the \"verified badge\") indicates that this is a \"verified identity\" by Twitter<\/em>--Twitter<\/em> asserts that this person has proved they are who they say they are.\n\nWho gets to get verified? It's a bit unclear. Twitter<\/em> puts it this way<\/a>:\n
An account may be verified if it is determined to be an account of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.<\/blockquote>\nHowever, all members of Congress and senior administration officials qualify for such status. So do most major public figures and prominent writers. If you don't see the blue badge, either disregard the tweet as suspicious, or do further research.\n\nOne additional note: sometimes people try to fake these indicators; an example is faking a verification symbol in a header.\n\n\"\"\n\nFigure 74<\/a>\n\nThis user has used their background image to place a verification badge next to their name. To steer clear of these sort of hacks, always view the badge in the sidebar or small \"hover\" card, not the header. To be extra sure it's legit, hover your cursor over it-- the words \"verified account\" should pop up.\n\nThis sounds complicated, but once you learn it, it takes maybe two seconds. Here I am, for example, checking to see if this is really New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's Spotify playlist, or a fake account, using a quick hover technique:\n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/twbHgKlDLoc\n\nFigure 75<\/a>\n\nIn this case it's verified. The governor should probably lay off Billy Joel a bit, but this is a legitimate tweet.\n\n \n

Other Methods<\/h2>\nNot all celebrities have verified accounts. If you don't find the verification badge, you may have to dig a little deeper.\n\nThere are a couple things to look for in an unverified account:\n