Twitter's current verified user list is now on GitHub --
why that matters
Chaotic activity at Twitter continues. Reports say Musk will fire half
the staff (3700) on Friday, and ending virtually all work at home. It
is also reported that Twitter Blue subscriptions get a price increase
from $3 to $8 on Monday and will include "blue check verification." He
has also said that paying users' tweets, replies, and mentions will
get priority visibility over those unable or unwilling to pay --
dangerous for obvious reasons. Obviously the details could change
since Musk is clearly making this all up as he goes along and keeps
making changes and contradictory statements. But this is what current
reports are saying as of today.
As we all know, the primary purpose of blue checks has been to provide
users with a way to help determine authenticity of accounts,
particularly of public figures and news sources. A pay-to-play model
renders verifications useless as an authenticity check.
A few days ago, I mentioned on Twitter that it would be useful to know
who all of the currently verified users are before Musk implements the
reported change to letting anyone pay for a blue check. This would
make it possible to determine if any user with a blue check was
verified before Musk's reported upcoming changes, since on or after
that data blue checks would be basically worthless.
Yesterday a Twitter user informed me that he had created such a CSV
database and placed it on GitHub for download. 413K verified Twitter
accounts, as followed by the @verified Twitter account itself, as of
November 2, compiled using the public Twitter API and Tweepy tools.
It may indeed prove useful if Musk moves ahead as reported.
https://github.com/jonkeegan/twitter-verified-list
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): https://www.vortex.com/lauren
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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