Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney praises Twitter’s changes to verified accounts

Tim Sweeney, co-founder and CEO of Fortnite developer Epic Games, has praised Twitter‘s recent changes to the the site’s verification of users – claiming the social media site’s old  system was “weird”.

Over the weekend, Twitter changed its messaging to stop users from being able to distinguish between those who were given a blue tick to confirm their identity, and those who bought one with a Twitter Blue subscription.

Formerly, those who were verified under the site’s legacy system had a message that stated: “This account is verified because it’s notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category.”

Now, the message says “this account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account,” meaning users can no longer tell the two ticks apart.

Last night (April 2) Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the social media site’s old way of verifying important figures was “wrong,” and praised the new messaging behind blue ticks.

“Twitter only verifying elites and friends of Twitter employees was wrong,” said Sweeney. “Democratizing verification for $8 was good. Treating everyone the same is principled. What kind of company sells a product but gives it to elites for free? That’s just [a] weird thing to do.”

????

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

Sweeney added that he would “prefer a system that doesn’t artificially boost or de-boost any account except based on spam/fraud detection,” but claimed Twitter’s old system “created a biased platform where elites had preferential treatment”.

Twitter was always boosting elites. Now they’re boosting all verifieds. I’d prefer a system that doesn’t artificially boost or deboost any account except based on spam/fraud detection. The gotcha is that making a payment is a strong non-spam signal.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 2, 2023

However, the change has been met with a mixed reception. Some have claimed that it opens the door to impersonation, which happened when Twitter Blue first launched in November 2022.

So this FAKE ACCOUNT… https://t.co/zlX5BoeLiT promoting crypto has a blue tick? Lets see whether it is taken down when I report this impersonation.

— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) April 3, 2023

My legacy blue tick was provided by Twitter because I’m regularly the subject of targeted harassment campaigns.

These have included impersonation & attempts to hack my account (one of which was successful).

I wasn’t anointed by some status police.

I was attacked by 4chan.

— Van Badham (@vanbadham) April 3, 2023

When Twitter Blue launched, comedians Sarah Silverman and Kathy Griffin were suspended for impersonating Twitter head Elon Musk.

In the gaming world, companies including Nintendo and Valve were impersonated by Twitter Blue subscribers.

Last week, Musk defended the service after it was criticised by William Shatner.