Twitter's "blue check" used to signal author authenticity. Now, it's a way for peddlers of misinformation to appear trustworthy.
Dozens of well-known purveyors of misinformation — many of whom were only recently allowed back onto the platform — are paying $8 a month for a blue check through Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk's new verification system called Twitter Blue, lending them an air of legitimacy as the platform's relaxed moderation standards allow them to spread false narratives at scale.
NewsGuard analyzed the Twitter activity between March 1 and March 7, 2023, of 25 misinformation superspreader accounts that were "verified" by Twitter Blue. Each of the 25 accounts analyzed by NewsGuard had at least 50,000 followers and was either affiliated with a website that NewsGuard has assessed as having spread false information, or found to have spread a prominent false narrative included in NewsGuard's proprietary Misinformation Fingerprints database, which provides detailed debunks of false narratives. NewsGuard found that the 25 accounts cumulatively posted 141 tweets (original and quote tweets) containing false, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims. While the majority published in English, some also tweeted in French.
These tweets were viewed nearly 27 million times and received more than 760,000 likes and retweets during this period, the NewsGuard analysis determined. The 25 accounts also cumulatively retweeted 35 posts containing misinformation, bringing the total...
Published on April 28, 2026 In a determined effort to protect the reputation of one of Africa’s most iconic wildlife destinations, Kenya’s Tourism Regulatory Authority has strongly denied false cl...