4 ms·

I mean that ambiguity does exist currently (see https://twitter.com/willsmith https://twitter.com/willsmith) but would certainly get worse. And it would be way

I mean that ambiguity does exist currently (see https://twitter.com/willsmith https://twitter.com/willsmith) but would certainly get worse. And it would be way too easy to get a verified account and then just change a few things to look like some famous person

paulgb 4y ago
> And it would be way too easy to get a verified account and then just change a few things to look like some famous person To me, this is proof that verification isn’t about security feature, just social status. It’s been exploited by hackers to mimic famous accounts, including Musk himself https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46097853.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46097853.amp
RandallBrown 4y ago
The whole profile should be verified. Photo, description, screen name, etc. and any change to any of it requires a re-verification. This would prevent stealing accounts and help solve the issue of regular people with famous names being mistaken for celebrities.
- kbenson 4y ago
  I think you missed some of the nuance. This is two famous people with the same name, one just much more famous. There's likely to be some times where over 5-10 years which of the two is more famous shifts. A name is not a unique identifier. Full stop. If you expect a specific name to refer to a specific person just because it's public, you're glossing over a lot of details which just plain don't make that work. To some degree, this is not a problem with the social media network, it's a problem with people not realizing that a name on a social media network doesn't necessarily have to be the first person you think of when you see that name, and some personal responsibility to know who you're contacting is expected. There's things social networks can and should do to make this easier, but ultimately the problem will persist until people change their behavior.
  - throw_nbvc1234 4y ago
    Great so if you have the same name as a national leader don't pretend to be that national leader. If you do, expect to be brought to court over that impersonation. I'm sure if i made a <social media account> tonight claiming to be the president of the USA I'd eventually get shutdown; KYC just makes it more straightforward to prosecute or block the offenders. Or repurpose the misinformation banners to make it clear that this is a person with the same name not a person with the same position/title. Maybe the long-tail gets messy but that's where implicitly or explicitly linking to external sources is valuable. Or just trust twitter to be that external source (maybe with 3rd party alternatives via "open sources").
    - kbenson 4y ago
      > Great so if you have the same name as a national leader don't pretend to be that national leader. By "missing some of the nuance", I meant of the example presented earlier (https://twitter.com/willsmith https://twitter.com/willsmith), which is not someone impersonating Will Smith the actor, is someone somewhat famous in their own right (even if much less so than the actor), and has the name because they were on Twitter first. They go out of their way to state who they are and to disambiguate themselves from the actor Will Smith, but are also verified as Will Smith. Guess what? They got a lot of hate tweets recently from people that didn't bother to actually look whether @willsmith was the actor or not and just blindly assumed so. Perhaps you missed some of the nuance in that as well?
  - RandallBrown 4y ago
    I didn't miss any of the nuance but I suppose you may be misunderstanding me. I'm not expecting their name to be a unique identifier. I'm expecting their whole profile to be one. Whenever that changes re-verification should happen. @willsmith is clearly not the Will Smith that slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. He isn't claiming to be, but he could change his profile photo and all of a sudden the world would think he was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The blue checkmark adds some validity to that claim.
    - kbenson 4y ago
- vmception 4y ago
  username and other changes do flag for re-verification, on twitter as is
jwkane 4y ago
Add a category for what they are famous for? willsmith with a blue checkmark and "Podcaster" compared to will_smith with a blue checkmark and "Assaulted Chris Rock"?
- arcticbull 4y ago
  LinkedIn endorsements but for Twitter
smsm42 4y ago
If you're that Will Smith and are worried about it, just go on TV, say "this twitter account is mine, all other are fakes" and post the link to it on your profile. Or do the same in NYT interview. This is a solved problem.

paulgb 4y ago

> And it would be way too easy to get a verified account and then just change a few things to look like some famous person To me, this is proof that verification isn’t about security feature, just social status. It’s been exploited by hackers to mimic famous accounts, including Musk himself https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46097853.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46097853.amp

RandallBrown 4y ago

The whole profile should be verified. Photo, description, screen name, etc. and any change to any of it requires a re-verification. This would prevent stealing accounts and help solve the issue of regular people with famous names being mistaken for celebrities.

kbenson 4y ago
I think you missed some of the nuance. This is two famous people with the same name, one just much more famous. There's likely to be some times where over 5-10 years which of the two is more famous shifts. A name is not a unique identifier. Full stop. If you expect a specific name to refer to a specific person just because it's public, you're glossing over a lot of details which just plain don't make that work. To some degree, this is not a problem with the social media network, it's a problem with people not realizing that a name on a social media network doesn't necessarily have to be the first person you think of when you see that name, and some personal responsibility to know who you're contacting is expected. There's things social networks can and should do to make this easier, but ultimately the problem will persist until people change their behavior.
- throw_nbvc1234 4y ago
  Great so if you have the same name as a national leader don't pretend to be that national leader. If you do, expect to be brought to court over that impersonation. I'm sure if i made a <social media account> tonight claiming to be the president of the USA I'd eventually get shutdown; KYC just makes it more straightforward to prosecute or block the offenders. Or repurpose the misinformation banners to make it clear that this is a person with the same name not a person with the same position/title. Maybe the long-tail gets messy but that's where implicitly or explicitly linking to external sources is valuable. Or just trust twitter to be that external source (maybe with 3rd party alternatives via "open sources").
  - kbenson 4y ago
    > Great so if you have the same name as a national leader don't pretend to be that national leader. By "missing some of the nuance", I meant of the example presented earlier (https://twitter.com/willsmith https://twitter.com/willsmith), which is not someone impersonating Will Smith the actor, is someone somewhat famous in their own right (even if much less so than the actor), and has the name because they were on Twitter first. They go out of their way to state who they are and to disambiguate themselves from the actor Will Smith, but are also verified as Will Smith. Guess what? They got a lot of hate tweets recently from people that didn't bother to actually look whether @willsmith was the actor or not and just blindly assumed so. Perhaps you missed some of the nuance in that as well?
- RandallBrown 4y ago
  I didn't miss any of the nuance but I suppose you may be misunderstanding me. I'm not expecting their name to be a unique identifier. I'm expecting their whole profile to be one. Whenever that changes re-verification should happen. @willsmith is clearly not the Will Smith that slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. He isn't claiming to be, but he could change his profile photo and all of a sudden the world would think he was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The blue checkmark adds some validity to that claim.
  - kbenson 4y ago
vmception 4y ago
username and other changes do flag for re-verification, on twitter as is

jwkane 4y ago

Add a category for what they are famous for? willsmith with a blue checkmark and "Podcaster" compared to will_smith with a blue checkmark and "Assaulted Chris Rock"?

arcticbull 4y ago
LinkedIn endorsements but for Twitter

smsm42 4y ago

If you're that Will Smith and are worried about it, just go on TV, say "this twitter account is mine, all other are fakes" and post the link to it on your profile. Or do the same in NYT interview. This is a solved problem.