Elon Musk's X Blue Users Now Required To Provide These Items To Israeli Company For Verification

Written By BlabberBuzz | Tuesday, 22 August 2023 05:15 AM
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Elon Musk's X Blue Users Now Required To Provide These Items To Israeli Company For Verification

Elon Musk's social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, has announced that its X Blue users will now be required to provide a selfie and a government-issued identification for verification purposes.

The verification process will be facilitated by Israeli firm AU10TIX software, which will also retain the information for a period of up to 30 days.

Engadget has reported that this new verification model was introduced in response to a series of impersonations that "temporarily derailed the company's paid verification plans." However, this move has been met with dissatisfaction from some X users, who have voiced concerns about the security of their data, particularly in light of recent security breaches.

One X user voiced their concerns on the platform, stating: "Naturally AU10TIX — the Israeli tech firm @elonmusk wants to deploy for users to hand information over for verification purposes — have engineers who worked / work in Unit 8200, the intelligence unit of the Israeli Occupation Forces."

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AU10TIX's history is rooted in the creation of identity verification systems for airports and border controls throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as reported by Al Jazeera. The company later expanded into "digital spaces" in 2002, following the advent of the internet. Today, it serves large tech companies, including Google, PayPal, and Uber.

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In November 2022, Musk introduced monthly subscription fees for verified Twitter users. Verification was subsequently extended to any account that provided a phone number and an active subscription to a Twitter Blue plan. On April 1, the company announced that it would discontinue the legacy verification program, a move that some feared would pave the way for impersonation.

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In response, the company introduced gold and gray checkmarks for verified organizations and government-affiliated accounts. The latest X verification process is intended to enhance security on the platform. However, it will only affect X Blue subscribers, a fact that has been met with skepticism by some users.

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Musk faced criticism last week after announcing that the "block" feature on the platform would soon be phased out. In response to user discontent, Musk appears to have blocked some users, including Catturd and actor James Woods.

A Community Note was subsequently added to Musk's post, stating: "If the ability to block users was to be removed, X would be in violation of the policies of the App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Potentially, this could lead to X being removed from these platforms. There are no such policies for the web-app however."

This series of events underscores the challenges faced by social media platforms in balancing user security with freedom of expression, and the ongoing debate surrounding data privacy in the digital age.

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