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Twitter got sued back in the day by Tony LaRussa, former coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, for letting people impersonate his account—and thus the verified blue

Twitter got sued back in the day by Tony LaRussa, former coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, for letting people impersonate his account—and thus the verified blue check was born. So now impersonation is just getting more nuanced, on Twitter, FB, DNS, Skype, Zoom, robocalls, Tinder, you name it. If someone impersonates someone in person in the US, it’s probably a fine or an arrest. If someone does it on the internet, well, more often than not we can’t tell and even if we do know who did it, we may try them in the US but if outside, not much of a chance. Why do you think we haven’t demanded that tech companies and governments solve this problem?

nradov 7y ago
It is generally not illegal to impersonate someone. You will only be fined or arrested if there is an actual crime involved, like fraud.
dr-detroit 7y ago
The tech companies receive their funding from bad actors because our economy was restructured to prevent another amazon, ebay, or other disruptive startup from ever having a traditional IPO on equal footing with our government sponsored oligopoly firms. (Petit, 2016)
zo1 7y ago
> Why do you think we haven’t demanded that tech companies and governments solve this problem? Privacy is almost always the answer to that one. Either that, or "to protect people from totalitarian governments". Honestly, I understand that, but I'm disappointed that no one goes further and says "Hey, let's see if we can solve both problems at the same time whilst maintaining security and privacy."
- specialist 7y ago
  Easy solution. Verified works get signed by their content maker. Tony LaRussa is verified. Twitter issues him a cert. All of Tony LaRussa's works are signed with that cert. Revoke the cert if there's ever a problem. Not really Tony LaRussa. Someone hacks his accounts. He passes away. Etc. Unsigned works still permitted. But everyone knows no one claims the work as their own.

nradov 7y ago

It is generally not illegal to impersonate someone. You will only be fined or arrested if there is an actual crime involved, like fraud.

dr-detroit 7y ago

The tech companies receive their funding from bad actors because our economy was restructured to prevent another amazon, ebay, or other disruptive startup from ever having a traditional IPO on equal footing with our government sponsored oligopoly firms. (Petit, 2016)

zo1 7y ago

> Why do you think we haven’t demanded that tech companies and governments solve this problem? Privacy is almost always the answer to that one. Either that, or "to protect people from totalitarian governments". Honestly, I understand that, but I'm disappointed that no one goes further and says "Hey, let's see if we can solve both problems at the same time whilst maintaining security and privacy."

specialist 7y ago
Easy solution. Verified works get signed by their content maker. Tony LaRussa is verified. Twitter issues him a cert. All of Tony LaRussa's works are signed with that cert. Revoke the cert if there's ever a problem. Not really Tony LaRussa. Someone hacks his accounts. He passes away. Etc. Unsigned works still permitted. But everyone knows no one claims the work as their own.