11/01/2023
Most Americans Put Misplaced Trust in X’s Blue-Check Verification System
New research from NewsGuard shows most don’t know what a “verified” user on X means
(Nov. 1, 2023—New York) In a new survey conducted for NewsGuard in the U.S. by YouGov, 60% of X users did not know that the blue check mark verification on the platform previously called Twitter essentially just means people are paying X (formerly known as Twitter) to receive “verification.”
The YouGov survey, conducted exclusively for NewsGuard, found that one quarter of respondents wrongly assume that the blue check mark means the account is authentic, 16% believe that “verification” indicates higher credibility, which it does not, and the remainder selected “none of these” or “don’t know.”
“It’s understandable that news consumers assume that a blue check mark means the account has been reviewed by X and confirmed as trustworthy or at least as authentic,” said Steven Brill, NewsGuard Co-CEO. “Instead, this looks like a ‘pay to play’ offering that enables malign actors to spread misinformation while appearing to consumers to have been vetted as trustworthy by the platform.”
The consequences of this misimpression could be significant. In a report issued on Oct. 19, 2023, NewsGuard found that “verified” accounts on X are super-spreaders of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War, boosting falsehoods while displaying a “verification” blue checkmark. Indeed, 74 percent of the most viral posts on X advancing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War are being pushed by “verified” X accounts, the NewsGuard analysis has found.
In March 2023, X owner Elon Musk overhauled the platform’s verification system, allowing users to pay a fee of $8 a month to display a blue checkmark on their profile and to have their posts prioritized by the algorithm used by X. This means that they appear higher, with greater prominence, in users’ replies and search results.
That decision turned out to be a boon for bad actors sharing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War. For less than the cost of a movie ticket, they have gained the added credibility associated with the once-prestigious blue checkmark and enabling them to reach a larger audience on the platform.
During the first week of the conflict (Oct. 7-Oct. 14), NewsGuard analyzed the 250 most-engaged posts (likes, reposts, replies, and bookmarks) that promoted one of 10 prominent false or unsubstantiated narratives relating to the war, derived from NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints, its proprietary database of prominent false narratives. The results revealed that 186 out of these 250 posts — 74 percent — were posted by accounts verified by X.
The false or unsubstantiated claims identified by NewsGuard shared by these verified accounts included the explosive yet debunked claims that Ukraine has sold weapons to Hamas, that Israel has killed 33,000 Palestinian children since 2008, and that senior Israeli senior officials have been captured by Hamas. Collectively, posts advancing 10 top war-related myths received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed by more than 100 million times globally in just one week.
“The fact that consumers are under the impression that a blue-check mark on X confers some kind of mark of approval — as the YouGov/NewsGuard survey found, — is alarming, even Orwellian,” said NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz. “Ironically, as the Oct. 18 NewsGuard report demonstrated, the ‘verified” X accounts are among the worst offenders in terms of spreading false information, making it even more concerning that the public has a very different impression of these accounts’ credibility.”
Details and Methodology:
NewsGuard commissioned an October 2023 study with YouGov that polled a nationally representative sample of 1,147 Americans. The survey included the question:
- Thinking about when you see an account that comes with a blue check verification badge on X (formerly Twitter) … Which ONE, if any, of the following do you think it means when an account has a blue check mark? (If you do not use X (formerly Twitter), please select the ‘Not applicable’ option)
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1147 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 19th – 21st October 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).
About NewsGuard
Founded by media entrepreneur and award-winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard provides transparent tools to counter misinformation for readers, brands, and democracies. Since launching in 2018, its global staff of trained journalists and information specialists has collected, updated, and deployed more than 6.9 million data points on more than 35,000 news and information sources, and cataloged and tracked all of the top false narratives spreading online.
NewsGuard’s analysts, powered by multiple AI tools, operate the trust industry’s largest and most accountable dataset on news. These data are deployed to fine-tune and provide guardrails for generative AI models, enable brands to advertise on quality news sites and avoid propaganda or hoax sites, provide media literacy guidance for individuals, and support democratic governments in countering hostile disinformation operations targeting their citizens.
Among other indicators of the scale of its operations is that NewsGuard’s apolitical and transparent criteria have been applied by its analysts to rate news sources accounting for 95% of online engagement with news across nine countries.