Twitter has temporarily shut down Tweeting access to verified accounts, in a bid to limit the impact of a hack that took place earlier today. While hacks are common on social media platforms, as well as online services in general, this one appears to have temporarily changed the way Twitter as a platform operates, resulting in Twitter having to resort to drastic actions.
A short time ago, Elon Musk’s Twitter account appeared to be hacked. However, it quickly became clear that Musk’s account was not the only one with many verified accounts having suffered the same fate, and as part of what now seems to be a wide-scale Bitcoin scam. While users scrambled to gain back control of their accounts and delete the scamming Tweets, the issue became too much of a problem for individual accounts to handle.
The Twitter Support account initially sent out a Tweet explaining that it was aware of the issue and that it was investigating. A short time later, the same account sent out another Tweet explaining that some users may find they are unable to change their passwords or send Tweets. A third message from the same account came through even more recently, confirming the inability to Tweet, and make use of other features is still disabled, as it looks to deal with the issue.
The Unverified Twitter Uprising
While the messages did not directly state that it was only verified accounts that have been affected, the number of posts on the platform from unverified accounts since then, as well as the notably lack of posts from verified accounts, now suggests that is the case. In fact, many have taken the opportunity to highlight that while a verified Twitter status is considered a badge of honor, right now they are glad to not be verified. Similarly, there have been some instances where verified accounts have been able to momentarily get a message out, before being silenced once again.
Then there are those who have taken more drastic measures to get a message out, including retweeting their own older Tweets or those by other people, as retweeting seems to be one of the features that affected users can still do. While it currently remains unclear how long the silencing of verified accounts will continue for, Twitter is working on the issue, and it is unlikely to reinstate full access to all accounts until it is sure that whatever caused the widespread problem has been fully dealt with. In the meantime, unverified accounts will continue to dominate Twitter and should avoid any accounts promising Bitcoin riches.
Source: Twitter Support/Twitter