The new Twitter Blue subscription costs $8 a month and comes with a blue check almost identical to that of celebrities or journalists. The only difference is if you click on the badge that tells you if it was given to a worthy person or if it was paid for by a Twitter Blue subscriber. At a glance, just passing by, it looks exactly the same. SEE ALSO: If you buy a blue checkmark, Twitter will let you know Almost immediately, people started posting fake news. The sports world was particularly affected. Twitter is the place to go for sports talk, so he adds that trolls would be trying to trick people. The most common trick was to create rumors about a player leaving their team. More specifically, there was a fake LeBron James demanding a trade from the Lakers. There was a false version of ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting that the Las Vegas Raiders head coach had been fired. A fake Aroldis Chapman announced that the pitcher was staying with the New York Yankees. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Over time some or most of the accounts were suspended, but not before many people saw the posts. There was also an account pretending to be Nintendo that posted a picture of Mario flipping the bird. This account has also been suspended. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Fortunately, so far fake news has seemed to be mostly limited to these kinds of sports or pop culture stories, which are relatively innocuous. Although one person played Musk’s top advisor, Jason Kalakanis. They published false information about Kalakanis’ relationship with notorious financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Calacanis was in Epstein’s address book, but said he only met him once. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) It was extremely predictable that hijinks would ensue. That’s likely why Twitter briefly gave media organizations and celebrities an “Official” label before promptly returning it on Wednesday. It was easy to predict that trolls would try to trick users by impersonating other people. If the blue check is for sale, then it does not signal anything about reliability. It just shows that you have access to $8. So be careful out there guys and double check before you retweet.
