Cynical me is surprised the "blue checkmark = credibility" thing is starting to crumble. (Actual me can't help smile a bit.)
However, I don't know what they can do here. They set up the system where the users respond to blue checkmarks positively. Adding another layer of blue checkmark is confusing and silly, but having it be gamed is also not good.
The funniest part is that one of these spam accounts actually replied with the same spam facepalm. Lots of replies, all from what seem bot/spam accounts.
The (verified) account bio is "Official Account of the Directorate of School Principals, School Supervisors, and Tendik, Directorate General of GTK, Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology" (translated from Indonesian). It's probably a legit account that got compromised; tweets from a few days ago are all fine (and about Indonesian politics and the like).
So basically, the problem isn't really with the blue checkmark as such; it's useful to verify this is an official government account rather than some random guy; the problem is this account got compromised somehow.
Compromised or not, the blue checkmark is completely meaningless if you can change display names and not have to re-verify your account. Profile pictures I can see allowing for convenience, but what is the blue checkmark supposed to be certifying if not the person's name?
One of the main purposes atm for the verified checkmark is to prevent people from impersonating accounts by using usernames that visually look similar, e.g. @BillClinton vs @BiIIClinton
And reporting "account taken over" is apparently not an option-niece had her account taken over on Instagram and I couldn't report it (the person started trying to get me to add an email to my insta account) as "account taken over" but only as "fraudulent account." Actual social accounts should be able to use ones contacts to verify account take-over and return it to the correct owner.
For the people reporting these things on twitter, there is also "report an account" which is less clicks.
Yeah, I tried to do this today, and there was no option to report it as taken over — super frustrating.
Like maybe if someone's account suddenly has 5+ mutual connections reporting it as "maliciously taken over" you can shadowban it and not have it continue to spam everyone on their friend list? Like it's not that hard.
The whole "verified person" / "credible account" went out the window years ago when it became a "twitter approved politics" badge. Remember when the drama around 'SJW's were at its height, people started creating obviously fake accounts and spamming the talking points (e.g. #killallmen) to get their accounts verified..
Make it so that when they change their photo or display name or anything like that, they lose their blue checkmark, or maybe the blue checkmark has like a big question mark over it or something, until they get verified again.
I like this: changing photo/display name puts them in the checkmark verification queue. Also, turnaround time is a minimum of 72 hours. Until then, the previous details are displayed.
However, I don't know what they can do here. They set up the system where the users respond to blue checkmarks positively. Adding another layer of blue checkmark is confusing and silly, but having it be gamed is also not good.