As soon as Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he made some interesting changes to the way the platform works. I will try to outline what those changes are and how they are already working.

It is very easy to lie on the Internet, and sometimes it can be really funny. Other times it can be harassment or political sabotage. Twitter introduced the "verified" badge a few years ago to indicate that a public figure, celebrity, or media person is an official account.

As in most areas of public life, this became another battleground in the culture wars. While there may be a grain of truth to this interpretation, instead of devoting myself excessively to this issue, I have developed meaningful relationships with my peers and colleagues and pursued hobbies that fulfill me, such as weightlifting and video games.

However, Mask seems to be very interested in this thing called blue checks, and has previously (open in new tab) stated, "The current lord and peasant system on Twitter about who does and does not have a blue check is bullshit. Power to the People. Blue for $8/month." After delaying the rollout due to the U.S. midterm elections, apparently understanding the danger and potential for spoofing, Twitter gave paid members of its "Blue" premium service a verified check, something that had previously been granted only after review.

Now, just two days after adopting the new system, Twitter users cannot access Twitter Blue or pay for verification; The Verge (opens in new tab) reports that after Musk took control of the company, employees were laid off in droves The Verge (opens in new tab) speculates that since Musk took control of the company, Twitter has had difficulty fulfilling its basic functions and maintenance. Meanwhile, Platformer reporter Zoë Schiffer (opens in new tab) said that communications within Twitter reflect a deliberate effort to curb the impersonation crisis occurring on the platform.

The gaming world got a truly sublime first look at what this alternative system could offer: authenticated accounts with the tag nIntendoofus and the display name "Nintendo of America" (much easier to change and not reserved), tweeted a high-quality rendering of Mario fluttering a bird at viewers, saved by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier (opens in new tab).

Meanwhile, the verified @valvesotfware (note the "t" and "f" are in the wrong position) tweeted a fake announcement of a new "multiplayer platform" from the creators of Half-Life and Steam (save the evidence New Blood CEO Dave Oshry (thanks to Dave Oshry (opens in new tab)); Twitter itself is not unrelated, with the authenticated account @SzAt_0, "Twitter" getting a lot of attention for what looks like a crypto-phishing link. Reporter Alex Goldman (opens in new tab) saved this link for posterity before facing the ban hammer.

All of these accounts were quickly banned, but still garnered a large number of views initially. It is possible to click on a verified badge and determine whether it was purchased or granted because it is an official account of a celebrity or company, but that is like reading the fine print of a EULA. This Chrome extension, developed by Walter Lim, allows you to distinguish between paid and granted authentication badges in your browser.

As the Twitter crypto scam shows, there are truly terrible ways to exploit trust being undermined overnight. But until someone is truly hurt, we should keep the most important thing in mind. Here's a collection of our favorite fake-outs from the past few days:

As reported by Forbes (opens in new tab), pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, a prankster authenticated as "@EliLillyandCo" had to publicly announce that "we are excited to announce that insulin is free! We had to publicly state that we do not offer free insulin after declaring "we are excited to announce that our insulin is free. Diabetics need this compound to live, and the Mayo Clinic (open in new tab) reports that "the average American insulin user spent $3,490 on insulin in 2018, compared to $725 for Canadians." It is my unsurpassed pleasure to see pharmaceutical companies collar unwanted attention.

FanByte staff writer M.H. Williams (opens in a new tab) has these images, including tweets from Nintendo and Valve as well as a fake LeBron James announcing his departure from the Lakers and a fake ESPN contributor revealing a change of NFL coach Shared.

Vincent Blevins (open in new tab), journalist and author of The Jakarta Method (open in new tab), was prompted by Twitter's algorithm to follow Aaron Sorkin, author of The West Wing. Only... That's not Aaron Sorkin. It's @AaronSorkin69, some sort of digital raconteur posing as a prolific writer of stage and screen. The real Aaron Sorkin would probably be talking to his children as well.

With the suspension of Twitter Blue, the fun is over for now, but who knows what will happen next. Although it has the least traffic of the major social media platforms, Twitter has become an essential source of dissemination for businesses, reporters, artists, and comedians seeking to reach the widest possible audience; just look at the examples of Tumblr and Myspace, . shows how social media platforms that were once ubiquitous have fallen by the wayside after poor business decisions.