X says it is creating a new profile label to signify accounts that are parodies of a person or entity. The company says it “designed these labels to increase transparency and to ensure that users are not deceived into thinking such accounts belong to the entity being parodied.”
As of now, accounts will be able to add the parody label voluntary, but X suggests they will eventually become mandatory.
We’re rolling out profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts and their content on our platform. We designed these labels to increase transparency and to ensure that users are not deceived into thinking such accounts belong to the entity…
— Safety (@Safety) January 10, 2025
This may sound like old history at this point, but back when it was still called Twitter, the social network had an ingenious way to distinguish between legitimate and satirical accounts: The blue checkmark. The badge was well-established as a signal of authenticity; users knew to be skeptical of any account representing a prominent figure that did not display that iconic blue checkmark. It was an easy heuristic that people intuitively understood, and it meant you did not have to explain that an account was satirical, which ruins the joke.
Of course, when Elon Musk took over the platform he decided to take a sledgehammer to Twitter’s verified user program. Musk felt that the checkmark, which had been reserved for public figures like journalists and celebrities, bequeathed too much status to people he believed did not deserve it. Neo-nazis and other fringe figures were also not given checkmarks and conservatives felt the program was biased against them. Allowing anyone to have a checkmark would eliminate the hierarchy, making everyone equal, or so the thinking goes. It was also supposed to address the problem of bots by elevating accounts that had put down a credit card.
Of course, that is not how things have gone, and blue checkmarks on X just mean that the account is paying a monthly fee. Anyone can buy one—seemingly without needing to verify their true identity matches the name on the account—and X has been forced to largely recreate the old verification system after imposters spawned a swell of fake verified accounts to make outrageous posts under the names of figures like George W. Bush and Joe Biden. Now, corporations and government officials have their own differentiated badges—companies can pay tens of thousands annually to get corporate checkmarks for their employees, and accounts affiliated with government officials or organizations have silver checkmarks.
What is worse is that X enables verified users to earn revenue on the platform, creating bad incentives for abuse. Users like @CharlieKNews and @TuckerCNews feature “verified” checkmarks and launder the names of prominent individuals to trick users into engaging with them. Many of these accounts appear to be completely random people who steal content from others or make up dubious stories in order to farm engagement and earn money. For individuals in countries where wages are much lower, it can potentially be good money, too, and more than cover the cost of the monthly entry fee.
The new parody badges are another way that X is trying to solve a problem that it created itself. It may have taken the company a couple of years, but it has essentially come back around to where it started before. Except this time it is worse because having to explain that account is a parody makes it cringe.
This all just devalues the platform for users, but X lost much of its advertising revenue after Musk took over and needs the money from users paying for checkmarks, so this is what we get.
