Russian propagandists are buying Twitter blue-check verifications
The verification means their tweets, mostly opposing U.S. aid to Ukraine, are given added prominence
SAN FRANCISCO — Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation, a nonprofit research group has found.
The accounts claim to be based outside of Russia, so they can pay for verification without running afoul of U.S. sanctions. But they pass along articles from state-run media, statements by Russian officials, and lies about Ukraine from Kremlin allies, according to the research group
Reset, which shared its findings with The Washington Post.
One of the accounts describes itself in English as “No woke. No BLM. No gender pronouns … Just Anti-Imperialism.” Purporting to be based in San Francisco, its
profile picture shows a blond woman wearing a fur hat with a hammer and sickle badge.
Another account’s biographical blurb says it is “Doing my part to stop Western support for the Ukrainian war machine, one taxpayer at a time.” It regularly tweets videos it says show Russians killing Ukrainian soldiers.
Most of the dozen such accounts identified by Reset were created last year during the first phase of the war in Ukraine. Archived webpages show the accounts lacked blue check marks until recently, after Musk, Twitter’s new owner, introduced a pay-to-play model and said he would phase out the legacy verifications that have identified politicians, journalists and other notable figures and weeded out impostors.
Musk has said that in the future, tweets and replies from such paid subscribers will be featured even more prominently in Twitter’s news feed and search. But some of the accounts have already been getting more views in recent weeks.
Musk has boosted one of the accounts by replying to its tweets, including one spreading a lie that thousands of NATO troops had died in Ukraine.
Contuinued on the webpage.
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