More fun and games at Twitter - but there is a serious side for brand owners

Earlier this year all eyes were on Twitter as changes to the Blue Tick policy allowed a flurry of fake brand accounts to cause havoc. You will recall the fake Eli Lily account that offered free insulin in the US. See https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/w-038-3440. This was very damaging to Eli Lily's brand. Well Twitter owner Elon Musk is at it again. Further changes have been made to the Blue Tick policy. It is no longer possible to tell if an account has a blue tick as it is a verified legacy account or if it is a subscription account. This seriously undermines the value of the blue tick from a branding perspective and introduces a significant level of doubt for Twitter users as to the genuineness of the accounts that they interact with. If the accounts cannot be trusted then it will be much harder for brands to use them for delivering advertising and promotion. For brands, their reputation and brand integrity are paramount. There are reports that a leaked memo from Elon Musk states that Twitter is worth less than half what he paid for it. Problems like this with the blue tick are hardly likely to help Twitter to recover this lost value.