Twitter hacked: panic and joy as verified users with blue tick forbidden from posting
There was panic and joy on Wednesday night when verified Twitter users were forbidden from posting, for approximately two hours, for the first time.
The unprecedented move followed the hacking of a series of high-profile accounts, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West and Apple.
In a scam message that began “I am giving back to the community”, multiple official accounts directed their millions of followers to deposit money into an anonymous Bitcoin wallet.
In a statement, the social media company said it locked down all verified accounts – identified with blue ticks or blue checks – to prevent the scam spreading.
“We limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this,” Twitter said. “This was disruptive, but it was an important step to reduce risk.”
Most accounts should be able to Tweet again. As we continue working on a fix, this functionality may come and go. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020
We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020
In the void, the majority of Twitter users flourished:
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) July 15, 2020
blue checks trying to abandon their verified status like a vanquished army casting off their uniforms to avoid being identified
— Garbage Ape 🗑 🦧 (@GarbageApe) July 15, 2020
Some verified account users took painstaking steps to continue eking out their thoughts – they could still retweet old tweets that summed up their feelings or laboriously construct messages out of single words and letters.
The election analyst, Nate Silver, pieced together: “Poll shows democrat leading” thanks to @everyword, a bot account tasked with tweeting out every word in the English language.
💡✨💡✨💡✨💡 pic.twitter.com/ODaHG7UG6d
— HashTigre🌼DayLite (@hash_tigre) July 16, 2020
I love it when people finish each other's sentences 💖 pic.twitter.com/LpCHZrXg2L
— alex bennetts (@alexbennetts) July 15, 2020
Musician Lil Nas X worked around the problem by creating a completely new, unverified account.
“Not LIL NAS” was created this month, and had no tweets or retweets until it was immediately retweeted by his official account.
THIS IS LIL NAS I CANT TWEET U GUYS PLEASE GIVE ME ATTENTION pic.twitter.com/H54avFrf1r
— Not LIL NAS (@NotLILNAS1) July 15, 2020
what do i do on this account now? i have already fulfilled my purpose
— Not LIL NAS (@NasMaraj79) July 16, 2020
i’ve decided this is the account of my straight alter ego lil hetero x 🤍
— Not LIL NAS (@NasMaraj79) July 16, 2020
The author and New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino had the foresight to avoid the whole issue altogether. But within hours, the utopian vision of a blue check-less Twitter had vanished, and normal service resumed.
This feels like a reward for years of un-verifying my own account
— Jia Tolentino (@jiatolentino) July 15, 2020