Who and how are you going to decide who is a celebrity?
@MassageMaster1
· 10 months ago
Who is to say who is a celeb or not? I am a celeb with my clients... should twitter verify me? Where is the line?
paul
· 10 months ago
i just hope they don't make @darthvader verify that he is the true sith lord.
Duncan
· 10 months ago
Yes protections need to be in place but also for ordinary members of the public. Easy support access I guess? Good article.
twitter.com/duncanoldham
Ken Morrill
· 10 months ago
The accounts of politicians should be verified. Recently, an impostor for a state governor rapidly mopped up followers, despite a name typo in the profile. The risk is that misinformation could be spread, rolling out fast enough to hurt markets or public safety.
snarf
· 10 months ago
Twitter should squat on its own domains and reserve them for brands and either hand em over to the legit co's or sell them to them. or maybe i'll start twegistry.com and spend all day doing just that
Dave Graziano
· 10 months ago
Most definitely! Just ask the president Obama (whom I voted for) about not vetting certain appointees.I say this tongue in cheek, but there are huge risks with not vetting the famous or the not so famous. With Open Technology we all need to be "responsible" open networkers and communicators. It would appear that for some the "5 seconds of fame" takes precedence over the responsibity. Not to mention the damage that could result.
Emma Ryan
· 10 months ago
I think in its current form verifying accounts seems over and above what is necessary, have they not seen MySpace et al? However, if through verifying they create a new 'badge' system which they can monetise then I would be very, very happy for them. Not only does it offer Twitter with a revenue stream, which you can see growing, it also offers a new service for twitter users. Following celebs, is just something I have done, mainly because of the all the name dropping that has been made on TV recently, and I have to say it's great fun. Perhaps even more so than watching them on TV, but then there lies another problem.... How does TV monetise their stars who twitter, and what happens when those twitters become more interesting, watchable than the programmes they appear in, uhm?
Jim Connolly
· 10 months ago
Pete,
An excellent post! There's another problem with account verification for celebrities though;
"Who determines if someone is a 'big enough' celebrity to justify having their account verified?"
For example: How many of Twitter's team would have known who UK daytime TV host Philip Schofield was? He's only been on Twitter a few weeks and has 50k followers.
Rick
· 10 months ago
I'm following robin williams around twitter. But he isn't telling any jokes, not even 1 per nanosecond. I think he may be an imposter. But he is following me back! I've warned him I will feed him to my westipoo if he steals my jokes. Which made him laugh at me. Something I think Robin Williams would do, he would laugh at me. But I doubt he'd respond. Isnt he busy making a movie, guesting on a talk show, doing stand-up somewhere in the United States? If Robin Williams was really following a Daddlidoo like me, I would have to move him down the celebrity list a few spots, maybe more unless he calls me and confirms that he is Robin Williams the comedian and not Robin L Williams, the spammeroo from Kalimazoo. I'm sorry, what was the question again?
Mark Drapeau
· 10 months ago
In short, if there are going to be nameless brands on Twitter, or celebrities, etc. they should somehow be verified. Maybe the privledge of being a brand on Twitter is ofset by a cost.
Otherwise, I think there shouldn't be brands on Twitter at all (as I've written here: http://tinyurl.com/6s6y24) because of misleading information, impersonation, manipulation, etc.
Jason Moffatt
· 10 months ago
The problem goes a bit deeper then just celebrities. Spammers are pounding and impersonating anyone in the marketing industry who has a decent following.
Then they have bots go follow everyone and their mother in hopes to sell some pathetic "How to game Twitter" product.
They will definitely need to beef up some security as celebrity imposters are just one of the problems.
Thankfully, Twitter has been damn good at purging these bogus accounts fairly quickly.
@jeanannvk
· 10 months ago
I don't think it is necessary to verify brands. Social media users are great at sniffing out a fake and confronting the problem head on. Why add another layer of cost and infrastructure to a community that is generally self regulated?
Though I am disappointed it wasn't really the Dalai Lama that was following me...
BonelessThurs
· 10 months ago
I say that verifying your account should be possible yet optional... it'd make things better IMO
Daniel Brenton
· 10 months ago
I will have to chime in with the responses above of "who decides what a celebrity is?" and "how 'big' do you have to be?"
The flip side is that anyone who has the aim of "becoming someone" is impelled to mark their territory in every social media form that comes into existence.
I don't know about you, but I haven't figured out how to add that 25th hour yet ...
Jamie
· 10 months ago
"i just hope they don’t make @darthvader verify that he is the true sith lord."
Just quoting the best comment I have ever seen on a blog post, don't mind me :)
John Newman
· 10 months ago
Maybe it would be best if all celebrities go through the same process that Shaq went through. Just spend a few minutes on the phone with a skeptic and prove you're who you say your are.
@bryce
· 10 months ago
we should make them all do what @rainnwilson did: make them take a picture of themselves holding up today's morning paper to verify the face and date, hostage style:
Twitter needs to implement account verification for all users - not just celebrities. There's enough spam going on nowadays so I assume it would help cut back on that, as well.
JimK
· 10 months ago
Good post!
I think it applies to every social site out there though - shouldn't MySpace, Facebook and even YouTube accounts be "verified", and who will do the verification?
I tend to feel actually that they shouldn't be, and that just like real life, it becomes all about who you befriend on the social web(even if you really don't know them). In other words, it's pretty obvious that Ashton Kutcher (and not a PR team) is really on twitter because his tweets directly correlate to videos he posts in real-time.
So, if Mr Kutcher is friends on twitter or facebook with someone who you think MAY be a celeb, chances are good they are the real mccoy(and actually a friend of his), but confirm it for yourself before you decide to start retweeting ever word you hear.
As for the Dalai Lama, things happened as they should - imposters were discovered when any meaningful traffic and thus press takes place. If the 5 minutes of fame that the fake twitter account generated helped anyone - it helped the real Dalai Lama. What's the crime?
To summarize: if you're looking for someone famous to follow online - you might want to first check with the people that know that famous person (there's always 6 degrees, especially online), and not just do a general search for their name. If they follow you first - unless you think you might have given them a reason, it may not be the real deal.
@OHHDL is back ONLINE as of about 20 minutes ago.... The UNOFFICIAL Twitter page of the Dalai Lama!
MarkOLMâ„¢
· 10 months ago
I think this is an excellent opportunity for Twitter to engage their community and solve the problem of name squatting.
The option to open a 'celebrity' account should be given at sign up. Twitter can open up a whole level of celeb accounts to offer each one the opportunity to have their name not being taken by a squatter. The celeb accounts can be assigned to brands/companies, and people. Something like http://twitter.com/celeb/OHHDL would give people peace of mind that the account is accurate. These accounts could also include a more extensive service that provides them built-in functionality (follow-backs, auto dm's, etc).
With these new accounts there should be a specialized application process that allows the applicant to specify what industry, type of work they are involved in. I like the idea of taking a photo with something recent. If there was a randomly generated image that the applicant could print out, take a picture with, and submit it for approval, then using some recognition software, verify that the image in the applicant's photo is a match.
The photo is posted on a dedicated Twitter site, where users are asked to verify the celeb's authenticity. By messaging to an assigned hashmark (#) votes are tabulated by software calculating the number of yes and no's they receive. In addition to this, after the original application process is accurately completed, the applicant is granted a temporary 7-day account, where they are able to communicate with the Twitter masses. There they can type out places to verify their celebrity by their own mentioning of their Twitter authenticity vote, on their own sites, blogs they write on, shows they'll be in, youtube video messages, etc.
Of course there are a lot of details to consider, but the framework of something like this is exciting. If anything, this idea can become an opportunity for celebrities and brands to get the word out on Twitter that they've joined up, creating buzz for themselves. This benefits Twitter by potentially bringing them more exposure as the celebs/brands will try to make mention of the site in different media. This also allows users the opportunity to feel like they're making a valuable contribution to the community by being a part of a fun authentication process. I can see it being a big draw to a lot of mainstream users who have yet to adopt Twitter.
It'll be interesting to see how Twitter decides to handle this, but the possibilities are unlimited.
Deborah
· 10 months ago
I think they should be verified and in terms of what "qualfies" someone as a celebrity - I really think that is pretty clear. A friend of mine on Myspace who is in the business required that he either meet them in person or have a phone conversation. It worked well... If it's a fan site or something of that nature then a certain label must be applied.
You would hope that the world is in a bad enough state that people would not continue to feel the need to impersonate others to somehow validate their worth...but it seems that things have not evolved to that state yet. His Holiness is fact on Myspace. So when that site cross references to twitter you will probably be in good shape.
Lisa | zenatplay
· 10 months ago
I think the option to have a verified account would be useful, if only for the safety of other users.
How many of the pretend Dalai Lama's followers would have happily stepped forward if he'd asked for donations or personal information? A lot. That's how many.
In the meantime, I have my own verification method. When I discover a famous person I'm interested in on Twitter, I go to their official website to see if they mention their account there. If they don't, I generally assume they're a fake. Recently, I've made two exceptions: @OHHDL and @gtdguy (David Allen). One down...
OfficialChrisDuncan
· 10 months ago
I don't think this is really twitter's responsibility. Fact-checking should be left to journalists. Common sense should be left to... everybody.
LIna DeMartinez
· 10 months ago
I am just wondering.
If a platform as "sophisticated" as Facebook has not been able to solve this issue, what makes any one think Twitter will?
By all standards, they rely on the know-how of third party developers for most everything...
Kris C
· 10 months ago
The account is back online, and says "unofficial" but that is NOT enough. For one thing, tweets are still in the account & would still be found in searches that state:
This site is maintained by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. OHHDL is responsible for all media pertaining to HH. 5:21 PM Feb 7th from web in reply to (name removed)
His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience. 6:53 PM Feb 8th from web
These statements are not the work of a fan... they are bold lies. I don't know why morons create fake accounts - maybe they love to fool people because it gives them a false sense of power. I do agree verifiying *in advance* puts too much burden on Twitter, but I'd like to request that if they reinstate accounts that they suspend for misrepresentation of public figures, they actually clean them out and make them start over. There's nothing wrong with saying, "nope, you have to create a new account" so that they can get rid permanently of false statements. In this case, even the dude's initials for his Twitter account MEAN "OFFICE of HIS HOLINESS, the DALAI LAMA", and therefore the sham continues.
twitter.com/highmikephelps is clearly real. I think this might be his only true outlet...
Niels
· 10 months ago
I think they should work with a system like Google Adwords where copyrighted names are blocked for advertisement. This system should be added to Twitter to stop the twitsquatting.
CrisisBullshit
· 10 months ago
Well i think it is problem to decide who is celebrity and who is public figure. Then it comes problem how to verify it. All in all sounds very problematic and tomy mind if you can't control it effectively don't even try to do it
Brijesh
· 10 months ago
Who verifies mother-of-all accounts - email?
Ramla Akhtar
· 10 months ago
Yes, celebrity accounts should be verified on Twitter. And Facebook.
Indeed I think Facebook should also have more vigorous account verification procedures for regular profiles given the speed at which dis-information can spread.
Personally I'm not on a crusade to verify everybody claiming to be a celebrity on Twitter. I don't think it's my responsibility and i'm not even sure it's necessary to be honest. I think most people with common sense can figure out who is real or not and then the power of community can help us out the more difficult to spot fakes, rather than an official judgement. I see my site more to help people find celebs new to Twitter or who may not be using obvious usernames than as a detective agency.
That being said, I would never add a 'celeb' to my site knowing that they're fake, nor do I add any I have serious doubts about and I would immediately mark as Fake somebody later found to be a fake. But I think of it more as responsible
Finally, the spelling of Twitter with 1 't' was unfortunately completely unavoidable as Twitter restricts use of their name as a username.
Thanks again for the mention.
Tom van Brunschot
· 10 months ago
I would not have been surprised at all, if H.H. Dalai Lama really is using Twitter, regarding his following comment paraphrased from his Lincoln Center speech at the Healing the Divide Concert, Avery Fisher Hall, September 21, 2003
“In order to achieve their potentials, spirituality needs digital technology and digital technology needs spirituality. At an essential level, the two traditions complement each other. Humanity’s survival may depend on interaction between them.†--- H.H. Dalai Lama
If account verification is required, it should be required on all accounts, not just for "celebrities," which is far too subjective a designation.
Miss Attitude
· 9 months ago
I know it's already been said, but who decides who's a celebrity? And how do you decide who owns a brand, unless it's trademarked...
matsonian
· 9 months ago
Truly a tough question. On the one hand, we don't like to be duped, I contributed as many of you didi to spreading the word about OHHDL (which was over 20,000 at its peak in less than 24 hours and is now at 471). But at the same time, would Twitter have to stop everyone from using all the possible variations like DalaiLama, HisHoliness, HHDalaiLama, TibetanMonk, or anyone purporting to be the noted celeb. Already, people have gone in a secured ID's for celebs without posting anything, kin of like parking domain names, but I doubt anyone would seriously pay for it. Someone has AbrahamLincoln, but there are no posts. @AshtonKutcher is set up with 80 followers but no posts, yet Ashton uses @aplusk, so how does Twitter regulate all the possible variations. Ultimately, I agree that Twitter has a monetization opportunity here if it offers a premium service to celebrities and brands.
paul
· 9 months ago
in the future everyone will be famous... (you know who said that)
Lee
· 8 months ago
Celebrites\famous figures should have to verify their account. It's not right that anyone can go ahead and make an account with a celebrity name, and have hundreds to thousands of fans believing that they are hearing 'tweets' from a celebrity\famous figure. This fake celebrity can also say things that could ruin the celebritties name by false statements.
Chibisnake
· 6 months ago
To an extent we should have accounts verified. But I think twitter is great BECAUSE we have fake accounts. Like the fake micheal bay and such. If we could have a seal that said the celebrity is real, that would be cool, but I think banning fake accounts should NEVER happen.
Shadow the Hedgehog
· 6 months ago
Big names like popes, leaders and such need to have 0 fakers. With celebrities like Lohan or Hilton, I think fakes should be allowed.
I like the whole idea of an officially type seal, y'know, a little button or an * by the name to indicate that this user is for real. Because having a little seal on the user's profile isn't gonna help people who use 3rd party apps such as @twittelator.
I also like the seals idea because it could be extended upon. I think twitter should have little achievement seals as well. Mine would be "Total Badass"
zanxnaz
· 5 months ago
We all know who is and who is not a celebrity. I absolutely think Twitter should verify celebrity accounts. Keep it real. If you want to be fake... go to MySpace.
All Comments
twitter.com/duncanoldham
It would appear that for some the "5 seconds of fame" takes precedence over the responsibity. Not to mention the damage that could result.
An excellent post! There's another problem with account verification for celebrities though;
"Who determines if someone is a 'big enough' celebrity to justify having their account verified?"
For example:
How many of Twitter's team would have known who UK daytime TV host Philip Schofield was? He's only been on Twitter a few weeks and has 50k followers.
Otherwise, I think there shouldn't be brands on Twitter at all (as I've written here: http://tinyurl.com/6s6y24) because of misleading information, impersonation, manipulation, etc.
Then they have bots go follow everyone and their mother in hopes to sell some pathetic "How to game Twitter" product.
They will definitely need to beef up some security as celebrity imposters are just one of the problems.
Thankfully, Twitter has been damn good at purging these bogus accounts fairly quickly.
Though I am disappointed it wasn't really the Dalai Lama that was following me...
The flip side is that anyone who has the aim of "becoming someone" is impelled to mark their territory in every social media form that comes into existence.
I don't know about you, but I haven't figured out how to add that 25th hour yet ...
Just quoting the best comment I have ever seen on a blog post, don't mind me :)
http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/rainnw...
I think it applies to every social site out there though - shouldn't MySpace, Facebook and even YouTube accounts be "verified", and who will do the verification?
I tend to feel actually that they shouldn't be, and that just like real life, it becomes all about who you befriend on the social web(even if you really don't know them). In other words, it's pretty obvious that Ashton Kutcher (and not a PR team) is really on twitter because his tweets directly correlate to videos he posts in real-time.
So, if Mr Kutcher is friends on twitter or facebook with someone who you think MAY be a celeb, chances are good they are the real mccoy(and actually a friend of his), but confirm it for yourself before you decide to start retweeting ever word you hear.
As for the Dalai Lama, things happened as they should - imposters were discovered when any meaningful traffic and thus press takes place. If the 5 minutes of fame that the fake twitter account generated helped anyone - it helped the real Dalai Lama. What's the crime?
To summarize: if you're looking for someone famous to follow online - you might want to first check with the people that know that famous person (there's always 6 degrees, especially online), and not just do a general search for their name. If they follow you first - unless you think you might have given them a reason, it may not be the real deal.
Any info?
Don’t get BrandJacked: Confirming Your Corporate Twitter Account
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/12/04/d...
The option to open a 'celebrity' account should be given at sign up. Twitter can open up a whole level of celeb accounts to offer each one the opportunity to have their name not being taken by a squatter. The celeb accounts can be assigned to brands/companies, and people. Something like http://twitter.com/celeb/OHHDL would give people peace of mind that the account is accurate. These accounts could also include a more extensive service that provides them built-in functionality (follow-backs, auto dm's, etc).
With these new accounts there should be a specialized application process that allows the applicant to specify what industry, type of work they are involved in. I like the idea of taking a photo with something recent. If there was a randomly generated image that the applicant could print out, take a picture with, and submit it for approval, then using some recognition software, verify that the image in the applicant's photo is a match.
The photo is posted on a dedicated Twitter site, where users are asked to verify the celeb's authenticity. By messaging to an assigned hashmark (#) votes are tabulated by software calculating the number of yes and no's they receive. In addition to this, after the original application process is accurately completed, the applicant is granted a temporary 7-day account, where they are able to communicate with the Twitter masses. There they can type out places to verify their celebrity by their own mentioning of their Twitter authenticity vote, on their own sites, blogs they write on, shows they'll be in, youtube video messages, etc.
Of course there are a lot of details to consider, but the framework of something like this is exciting. If anything, this idea can become an opportunity for celebrities and brands to get the word out on Twitter that they've joined up, creating buzz for themselves. This benefits Twitter by potentially bringing them more exposure as the celebs/brands will try to make mention of the site in different media. This also allows users the opportunity to feel like they're making a valuable contribution to the community by being a part of a fun authentication process. I can see it being a big draw to a lot of mainstream users who have yet to adopt Twitter.
It'll be interesting to see how Twitter decides to handle this, but the possibilities are unlimited.
You would hope that the world is in a bad enough state that people would not continue to feel the need to impersonate others to somehow validate their worth...but it seems that things have not evolved to that state yet. His Holiness is fact on Myspace. So when that site cross references to twitter you will probably be in good shape.
How many of the pretend Dalai Lama's followers would have happily stepped forward if he'd asked for donations or personal information? A lot. That's how many.
In the meantime, I have my own verification method. When I discover a famous person I'm interested in on Twitter, I go to their official website to see if they mention their account there. If they don't, I generally assume they're a fake. Recently, I've made two exceptions: @OHHDL and @gtdguy (David Allen). One down...
If a platform as "sophisticated" as Facebook has not been able to solve this issue, what makes any one think Twitter will?
By all standards, they rely on the know-how of third party developers for most everything...
This site is maintained by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. OHHDL is responsible for all media pertaining to HH.
5:21 PM Feb 7th from web in reply to (name removed)
His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience.
6:53 PM Feb 8th from web
These statements are not the work of a fan... they are bold lies. I don't know why morons create fake accounts - maybe they love to fool people because it gives them a false sense of power. I do agree verifiying *in advance* puts too much burden on Twitter, but I'd like to request that if they reinstate accounts that they suspend for misrepresentation of public figures, they actually clean them out and make them start over. There's nothing wrong with saying, "nope, you have to create a new account" so that they can get rid permanently of false statements. In this case, even the dude's initials for his Twitter account MEAN "OFFICE of HIS HOLINESS, the DALAI LAMA", and therefore the sham continues.
When Seth Godin isn’t Seth Godin
http://tinyurl.com/problogger-sethgodin
Turns out that, for the trouble they represent, some prefer to not even open an account. Take a look at Seth's reasoning:
http://tinyurl.com/SB-notseth
Indeed I think Facebook should also have more vigorous account verification procedures for regular profiles given the speed at which dis-information can spread.
Personally I'm not on a crusade to verify everybody claiming to be a celebrity on Twitter. I don't think it's my responsibility and i'm not even sure it's necessary to be honest. I think most people with common sense can figure out who is real or not and then the power of community can help us out the more difficult to spot fakes, rather than an official judgement. I see my site more to help people find celebs new to Twitter or who may not be using obvious usernames than as a detective agency.
That being said, I would never add a 'celeb' to my site knowing that they're fake, nor do I add any I have serious doubts about and I would immediately mark as Fake somebody later found to be a fake. But I think of it more as responsible
Finally, the spelling of Twitter with 1 't' was unfortunately completely unavoidable as Twitter restricts use of their name as a username.
Thanks again for the mention.
“In order to achieve their potentials, spirituality needs digital technology and digital technology needs spirituality. At an essential level, the two traditions complement each other. Humanity’s survival may depend on interaction between them.â€
--- H.H. Dalai Lama
Source: http://www.spiritualcomputing.com/sc/discussion...
I agree and wrote the post "Engineering is Finding its Purpose again" on my weblog "Transformation Economy":
http://tomvanbrunschot.typepad.com/transformati...
And how do you decide who owns a brand, unless it's trademarked...
Ultimately, I agree that Twitter has a monetization opportunity here if it offers a premium service to celebrities and brands.
(you know who said that)
With celebrities like Lohan or Hilton, I think fakes should be allowed.
I like the whole idea of an officially type seal, y'know, a little button or an * by the name to indicate that this user is for real. Because having a little seal on the user's profile isn't gonna help people who use 3rd party apps such as @twittelator.
I also like the seals idea because it could be extended upon. I think twitter should have little achievement seals as well. Mine would be "Total Badass"