Since I was 16, I’ve been constantly fighting impersonation on many social media platforms. I’ve always been told off by the platforms, especially by Twitter, as these accounts falling under their “parody” rules. Even though that’s not the case, I’ve let it be because… well, who cares, really?
I admit that I have been considering attempting to get my Instagram/Threads account verified, if not because I’ve already noticed a couple accounts popping up impersonating me. It sucks, but impersonation monitoring being something that Meta offers is important to me. (Twitter could care less, it seems.)
The difference between Meta’s verification and Twitter’s is that Meta is actually checking identities. They take your ID and match that with a video of your face and your ID (depending on where you live). They’re doing an actual review. On Meta’s platforms, you either pay or don’t, but you can still get your identity checked either way.
Twitter is just checking for payment (either $8 or $1000 monthly, depending) and then doing a little dance masquerading as a “review period” wherein they really don’t actually review much. It’s not actual verification of identity, it’s just verification of payment. And that’s not to mention Elon Musk’s undying and only love of far-right extremists.
Out of all the options out there, if I were to get verified on any “mainstream platform,” I’d pick Meta’s. And that’s saying a lot, considering I hate billionaires (eat the rich!)… but I suppose that’s par for the course for the times we’re living in, hm?
I stand by what I’ve said before though… decentralized social media (ActivityPub, AT Protocol, etc.) matters. And verification should be free for everybody who is willing to go through the process, not just the people willing to hand over their wallets.
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