Elon Musk wants to ‘authenticate all real humans’ on Twitter. Here’s what that could mean
4 min read
This secret proposal is vague enough to give people an idea of what Musk has in mind but it is quite specific that it offers a number of possible avenues as he seeks to shape Twitter to his liking.
For example, Musk may try to require real names on accounts. Or it may continue to allow nicknames but requires image recognition, or integration with third party services where users already know.
Depending on the outcome, the project could have major implications for millions of Twitter users.
Musk’s campaign to “authenticate” Twitter users is due to one of its biggest pets with the platform: spam accounts, especially those that promote cryptocurrency scams. Finding these accounts hidden in the replies to Musk’s tweets is often not difficult. Many people even try to trade on his celebrity and attract unsuspecting people by imitating him.
Musk’s diagnosis may reflect a particular type of user experience, but it is likely that the user will soon be able to control the design of the platform. As part of its solution to the fight against cryptocurrency bots, Musk wants to make it easier to separate the real from the fake accounts with his proposal of “verification of all real human beings”.
Whichever method he chooses, York and other experts say Musk could face challenges that fall into two main categories: access and privacy.
Accessibility is about making sure that everyone who wants to use Twitter can come to the platform. With a system that connects accounts to credit cards, for example, York said Twitter would release all those who do not have one. They may be too young to have a credit card or they may have low credit and may not be approved. They may not like to trade their credit card transactions with data brokers or they may prefer to use cash for cultural reasons. Certification with consumer credit would “exclude millions,” York said.
The issue of privacy is a particular concern for human rights groups, said Natalia Karpeva, an attorney for digital rights group Access Now, “especially for people in countries like Russia and elsewhere where individuals are critical of or critical of the government. There is a lot of torture to cover political events. Protests, corruption, or war in Ukraine. ”
This indicates how complicated it can be to translate a simple-sounding principle, such as “verify all real human beings” into a functional product feature. The problem is not purpose or motivation. That is, human beings are complex creatures with personal circumstances that seldom fit neatly into cells.
York said that after years of trial and error, tech platforms have already developed important lessons about user authentication that could benefit Musk.
“If that just means something like captcha, I think he’s surprised,” said York. “He has talked a lot about how to get rid of bots, but Twitter has been trying to do that for years and I think he will soon realize that this is not an easy problem to solve. Is.”