Jack Lawrence is a 25-year-old who works in science research. Insider has verified Lawrence's possession of the account that he impersonated. The conversation has been edited to make it clearer.
It took me 25 minutes to set up a verified account for a person with more than one million subscribers. I used a fake Apple ID, a disposable email, and a masked debit card to open the account.
If you think I'm a tech wizard, you're wrong. It was just that easy.
The website's Twitter Blue program is a premium service that costs $8 per month. The main draw of the subscription is that it comes with a blue "verification" badges, which seems to be the main reason for it.
In order to lower the risk of being impersonated, the blue verification badge was first introduced in 2009. The blue check has meant for the last 13 years that this person is actually who they claim to be.
The blue checks are available for purchase.
It was very easy. The blue check and subscription were mine, with a disposable email address, a voice number, and a masked card.
Within a short period of time, I was getting direct messages from people who were fans of the person who I impersonated. It would be very easy to use this for bad things.
If I told those fans that I had a new merchandise drop, or that there was a new opportunity they should know about, what would they think? There are so many possibilities for abuse of the new social media platform.
In a new city, stop signs mean "turn left" but also mean "stop" but also mean yield. This symbol has been used for 13 years and suddenly changed its meaning.
If you click on a person's check mark, it will tell you if it's because they're a public figure or because of the blue check mark. I worry that people who aren't tech literate will be able to tell when someone paid for a verification Badge.
If you don't spend a lot of time on the social networking site, you could be in danger of being deceived by someone pretending to be you.
Think about how easy it was for me to impersonate someone on the video sharing website. I can imagine a lot of scenarios where it could be used in a bad way.
There are verified accounts that impersonate Donald Trump, George Bush, and Jesus Christ. As advertisers stop spending, the purpose of Twitter Blue seems to have been lost, according to new owner Musk.
If an angry person decides to impersonate their ex- partner, get a verified account, and post revenge porn or false complaints about their jobs, what will happen? I learned from the fact that it took me less than half an hour. Next time, it could be done in 15 minutes.
Think of the harm that could be caused by people who know what they are doing.
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