Pentagon attack disinformation shows perils of Twitter’s new paid verification
As of late April, the verification process on Twitter no longer confirms user identity.
On Monday, an AI-generated image depicting an explosion near the Pentagon went viral on Twitter after being shared by verified Twitter accounts like ‘Bloomberg Feed’, which could easily be mistaken for a real Bloomberg-affiliated account.
As of late April, the verification process on Twitter no longer confirms user identity. It now only represents accounts that have paid $8 per month for the company’s ‘Blue’ subscription service, giving users a blue check mark and other benefits.
The Russian state-controlled news network RT also shared the image, alongside several Twitter accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, like DeItaone, OSINTdefender and Whale Chart and an Indian television network. It is still not clear where this fake image and news story originated. The incident raises the question of how generative AI could be used to influence other domains of public life in the future, like the stock market.
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