Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
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Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#2What I don't understand is why Meta/Facebook thinks you are only a real person if you are a musician. You cannot just upload a picture of your passport and a couple of bank statements. You know, the way any other company verifies the identity of a person?
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#3I struggle to understand why verification on social media platforms involves anything more than taking a picture of yourself touching your nose with your left hand or whatever. The point should be to prove that the account is actually you, right? How did it end up being some kind of badge of honor?
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#4What I don't understand is why Meta/Facebook thinks you are only a real person if you are a musician. You cannot just upload a picture of your passport and a couple of bank statements. You know, the way any other company verifies the identity of a person?
Yes. But even assuming a desire to limit verification to notable people, it seems very odd that minor musicians are allowed but not minor actors.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#5I struggle to understand why verification on social media platforms involves anything more than taking a picture of yourself touching your nose with your left hand or whatever. The point should be to prove that the account is actually you, right? How did it end up being some kind of badge of honor?
Sort of like how there are only Wikipedia pages for “notable” people, only people with some amount of fame get a blue check mark on these platforms.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#6> Meta has so far removed fraudulently applied verification badges from more than 300 Instagram profiles
It's not a "Verification Badge", it's a "Famous Person" badge. If you verify someone's identity, John Doe indeed controls the instagram account with his face and name, then I don't see how there could be anything fraudulent about it if it's just a "verification badge".
The verification badge is supposed to show whether the person that operates an IG account is really that person, so why does a persons public image have any bearing on that? The DMV isn't going to issue you an License, then call you a month later saying "hey we suspended your license, no one's heard of you".
But we all know that badge is just a "Famous" badge. If we think of it that way then yeah, Meta was in the right because those accounts were fraudulent, because the person did not actually famous.
I realize these badges can lead to potentially lucrative brand deals. But how sad does your life have to be if you're dumping all this money and time to having a blue checkmark next to your name.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#7I struggle to understand why verification on social media platforms involves anything more than taking a picture of yourself touching your nose with your left hand or whatever. The point should be to prove that the account is actually you, right? How did it end up being some kind of badge of honor?
It's in a social media company's best interest for its user base to easily find and distinguish between Matt Smith the famous actor and the thousands of other Matt Smiths, especially the ones who might try to fake being the famous Matt Smith for shits and giggles and/or profit. "Verification" is definitely the wrong term for it, but if companies could come up with a different verb that didn't make even more obvious the divide between "important" people and the rest, they would have by now.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#8Wow, this article caused me to google myself and find that google has labeled me a music artist as well. I should start my own service since it seems maybe all you need to do is create a podcast, then google says you are a musician and presumably the verification process at Facebook follows google's lead.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#9I struggle to understand why verification on social media platforms involves anything more than taking a picture of yourself touching your nose with your left hand or whatever. The point should be to prove that the account is actually you, right? How did it end up being some kind of badge of honor?
I'm guessing some of these websites will favor content from "verified" users?
I mean, people will jump through flaming hoops for some stupid clout / prestige, but I would think there's some financial motive to all this. Could be that once you're verified on various platforms, companies will start to call you down with ad placement offers.
Re: Fake musicians: a million-dollar Instagram verification scheme
#10> Meta has so far removed fraudulently applied verification badges from more than 300 Instagram profiles It's not a "Verification Badge", it's a "Famous Person" badge. If you verify someone's identity, John Doe indeed controls the instagram account with his face and name, then I don't see how there could be anything fraudulent about it if it's just a "verification badge". The verification badge is supposed to show wh…
My partner runs a small brand, which attracted a copycat page clearly designed to scam users out of money for giveaways. She attempted to “get verified” and was denied because there was not enough news stories about the brand. We own the trademark to the brand name, and the verbatim copying of the copycat clearly infringes copyright. The only option we have is to file a trademark dispute through Instagram, but that involves handing over business information to the offending scammers, which seems like it could have unintended consequences. My whole strategy has been to tread lightly, as I’ve read so many horror stories of people losing their accounts, or the wrong account being banned. I genuinely don’t understand why the Instagram platform is so permissive to clear scammers.