{"id":1926413,"date":"2023-05-08T02:58:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T06:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-twitter-rules-expose-election-offices-to-spoof-accounts\/"},"modified":"2023-05-08T03:03:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T07:03:41","slug":"new-twitter-rules-expose-election-offices-to-spoof-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-twitter-rules-expose-election-offices-to-spoof-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter&#8217;s new rules put election offices at risk of spoof accounts."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-twitter-rules-expose-election-offices-to-spoof-accounts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1926413&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Twitter Verification Changes Cause Concern for Election Officials<\/h2>\n<h3>Tracking Down Accurate Information<\/h3>\n<p>Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia\u2019s elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-department-of-state-tells-counties-not-to-allow-outside-access-to-voting-systems\/\" title=\"Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not To Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems\">city commissioners<\/a> who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/our-founding-fathers-guaranteed-due-process-in-the-bill-of-rights-why-doesnt-that-apply-to-the-daunte-wright-case\/\" title=\"Our Founding Fathers Guaranteed \u2018Due Process\u2019 In The Bill Of Rights. Why Doesn\u2019t That Apply To The Daunte Wright Case?\">blue check mark<\/a>, a sign of authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check mark has disappeared. That\u2019s made it harder to distinguish @phillyvotes from a list of random accounts not run by the elections office but with very similar names.<\/p>\n<h3>Impostor Accounts and Election Security<\/h3>\n<p>Impostor accounts on social media are among many concerns election security experts have heading into next year\u2019s presidential election. Experts have warned that foreign adversaries or others may try to influence the election, either through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-advances-resolution-to-restore-solar-panel-tariffs-targeting-china\/\" title=\"House Advances Resolution to Restore Solar Panel Tariffs Targeting China\">online disinformation campaigns<\/a> or by hacking into election infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Election administrators across the country have struggled to figure out the best way to respond after Twitter owner Elon Musk threw the platform\u2019s verification service into disarray, given that Twitter has been among their most effective tools for communicating with the public.<\/p>\n<h3>The Inconsistency of Twitter\u2019s New Verification System<\/h3>\n<p>Election and security experts say the inconsistency of Twitter\u2019s new verification system is a misinformation disaster waiting to happen. \u201cThe lack of clear, at-a-glance verification on Twitter is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nascar-driver-who-inspired-lets-go-brandon-says-now-extremely-difficult-to-get-sponsorships\/\" title=\"NASCAR Driver Who Inspired \u2018Let\u2019s Go Brandon\u2019 Says Now \u2018Extremely Difficult\u2019 To Get Sponsorships\">ticking time bomb<\/a> for disinformation,\u201d said Rachel Tobac, CEO of the cybersecurity company SocialProof Security. \u201cThat will confuse users \u2013 especially on important days like election days.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Twitter\u2019s New Policy<\/h3>\n<p>Twitter\u2019s new policy invites government agencies and certain affiliated organizations to apply to be labeled as official with a gray check. But at the state and local level, qualifying agencies are limited to \u201cmain executive office accounts and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-twitter-rules-expose-election-offices-to-spoof-accounts\/\" title=\"Twitter's new rules put election offices at risk of spoof accounts.\">main agency accounts overseeing crisis response<\/a>, public safety, law enforcement, and regulatory issues,\u201d the policy says.<\/p>\n<p>The rules do not mention agencies that run elections. So while the main Philadelphia city government account quickly received its gray check mark last month, the local election commission has not heard back.<\/p>\n<h3>The Burden on Voters<\/h3>\n<p>Experts and advocates tracking election discourse on social media say Twitter\u2019s changes do not just incentivize bad actors to run disinformation campaigns \u2014 they also make it harder for well-meaning users to know what\u2019s safe to share. \u201cBecause Twitter is dropping the ball on verification, the burden will fall on voters to double check that the information they are consuming and sharing is legitimate,\u201d said Jill Greene, voting and elections manager for Common Cause Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>That dampens an aspect of Twitter that until now had been seen as one of its strengths \u2013 allowing community members to rally together to elevate authoritative information, said Mike Caulfield, a research scientist at the University of Washington\u2019s Center for an Informed Public. \u201cThe first rule of a good online community user interface is to \u2019help the helpers.\u2032 This is the opposite of that,\u201d Caulfield said. \u201cIt takes a community of people who want to help boost good information, and robs them of the tools to make fast, accurate decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia\u2019s elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the city commissioners who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a blue check mark, a sign of authenticity. But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1926414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[5018,3728,6406,7514,3807,18711,6900],"class_list":["post-1926413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-accounts","tag-election","tag-offices","tag-risk","tag-rules","tag-spoof","tag-twitters"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1926413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1926414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1926413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1926413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}