The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Twitter’s DIY verification sparks chaos

To view past editions of The Hill’s 12:30 Report, click here: https://bit.ly/30ARS1U 

To receive The Hill’s 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/3qmIoS9

–> A midday take on what’s happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* 

*Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha–breaks down crying hysterically.

TALK OF THE MORNING 

*Humming the Jeopardy! theme song*:

Everyone is still eagerly awaiting the Senate election results in Arizona and Nevada as election workers continue to count the ballots. 

Where things stand in Arizona: With 82 percent of the ballots reported, Sen. Mark Kelly (D) is up by 6 points, according to The New York Times. Map of where Arizona’s outstanding votes remain 

Where things stand in Nevada: With 90 percent of the votes counted, Republican Adam Laxalt is up by 0.98 points, according to the Times. Map of where Nevada’s outstanding votes remain

Analysis of where Nevada’s race stands 

Again, if either party wins both Arizona and Nevada, they win control of the Senate. If one party takes each, then Georgia will determine the majority. 

WHY SOME OF ARIZONA’S VOTES ARE TAKING A WHILE TO COUNT: 

The Arizona Republic’s Corina Vanek writes that “a technological glitch affecting polling sites throughout Maricopa County Tuesday caused some voters to have to place their ballots in a box to be transported to the county Elections Department, rather than be tabulated on site.” Helpful Q&A on what that means for the results 

TIDBIT FROM GEORGIA’S RUNOFF:

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver pointed out: “It’s kinda crazy that Raphael Warnock has run in 4 elections (counting runoffs) for the same Senate seat in 2 years.”

It’s Friday! And it’s 11/11, so make a wish 😉 I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.

🤷‍♀️ What’s happening at Twitter 

It’s been two weeks since Elon Musk took control of Twitter:

In the past two weeks, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk bought Twitter, fired top executives, enacted mass layoffs and began to implement widespread changes to the social media platform. 

Interesting read — inside the chaos at Twitter: The New York Times’s Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, Ryan Mac and Tiffany Hsu interviewed three dozen people for an inside look at what has gone down at Twitter in the past few weeks. It’s worth reading 

OK, but what’s going on with the blue checkmarks?: 

That’s where this saga has become jaw-dropping, albeit slightly entertaining at times. 

Twitter launched a $7.99/month option for users to verify themselves. That led to a wave of accounts impersonating public figures and companies with a blue verified check to confuse audiences. 

Think: Verified accounts impersonating LeBron James, Nintendo, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President Biden, etc. Fortune’s list of some of the notable impersonated accounts 

*Cue TV infomercial voice*.: For just $8, you, too, can impersonate your favorite public figure. (Narrator: Please don’t do that.) 

^ That’s a no-no, says Musk: Musk tweeted that “going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include ‘parody’ in their name, not just in bio … To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok.” Musk’s full tweets 

OK, so the blue check doesn’t mean much. How will people know if it’s an official account?: Twitter added a second, gray check mark to signify a public figure or official account. But hours after that feature was added, Musk tweeted that he killed the new feature. More on the gray check from The Wall Street Journal 

Keep in mind about Musk’s timing: The plan was to roll out the new Twitter Blue feature to allow users to verify themselves right before the midterm elections. However, many raised concerns about launching the DIY verification policy near Election Day — and its potential to lead to false information and confusion. Twitter then delayed the launch until the day after the election. More on the delay from The New York Times

THE FTC EVEN SAID IT IS CONCERNED: 

A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) spokesperson told The Hill in a statement: “We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern. No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”  

TO ADD TO THE PROBLEM — TWITTER’S TOP CYBERSECURITY CHIEF AND OTHERS RESIGNED: 

The Verge’s Alex Heath reports that “[Twitter’s] chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, chief information security officer Lea Kissner, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty have all resigned.”  

A FEW EXAMPLES OF IMPERSONATED ACCOUNTS: 

Oh, look, Jesus Christ is on Twitter: CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan tweeted a screenshot of Jesus Christ’s verified Twitter account. See for yourself 

^ This made me laugh: Historian Mark Pitcavage responded, “If they delete him, he will just come back three days later.”  

Lockheed Martin was impersonated: @LockheedMartini (notice the spelling error) tweeted, “We will begin halting sales to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States until further investigation into their record of human rights abuses. #WeAreLM”  Screenshot of the tweet — and other brands’ problematic impersonated tweets 

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier tweeted a screenshot of an impersonated Nintendo account

Which leads us to today — As The Verge so eloquently put it, ‘Twitter Blue it’:

^ That headline deserves a round of applause.

The Verge’s James Vincent is reporting that the new $7.99 Twitter Blue subscription service has disappeared from the iOS app, according to some users. 

Why this could be the case: “It’s not clear why users aren’t able to sign up for Twitter Blue. Twitter could be intentionally pausing access to the service while it deals with the chaos its launch has caused (countless users have been buying verification in order to impersonate brands and celebrities). Or, the system could have unintentionally collapsed.” 

The Hill’s Rebecca Klar explains what we know about the disappearing Twitter Blue sign-ups. 

⏸ In other news 

The Biden administration has stopped accepting student loan forgiveness requests: 

“The Biden administration announced on Friday it would stop accepting student loan forgiveness applications after a federal judge ruled against the program on Thursday.”  

What happens to the current applications?: “The site [says] the administration will fight in court for the program and the department will hold the applications of the millions of borrowers who already applied for the relief.” What we know

🦠 The COVID-19 numbers 

Cases to date: 97.8 million 

Death toll: 1,070,947 

Current hospitalizations: 21,691 

Shots administered: 646 million 

Fully vaccinated: 68.6 percent of Americans 

CDC data here.

🐥Notable tweets 

Wow, this is an old Twitter thread, but THANK YOU for bringing this to my attention:

@MelissaBalough tweeted a throwback to a Twitter thread from 2018 of a former Washington Post reporter’s experience buying crickets online. 

The thread from Christopher Ingraham begins: “So, a shipment of crickets for the lizard arrived via FedEx today. It was my first time ordering bulk crickets off the internet, and I naively assumed that they would be in like, a bag or some other contraption to facilitate easy transfer to another container. They were not.” Read the full saga

⏱On tap 

The House and Senate are out. President Biden is in Egypt and Cambodia. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C.

• 8 a.m.: First lady Jill Biden hosted a Veterans Day breakfast at the White House. Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff attended. 
• 8:20 a.m.: Biden arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. 
• 8:55 a.m.: Biden held a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. 
• 11:20 a.m.: Biden left Egypt and headed to Cambodia for the next stop on his trip.

All times Eastern.

📺What to watch

• 10:15 a.m.: Biden delivered remarks at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Egypt. Livestream 
• 11 a.m.: Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff attended a Veterans Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery. Livestream

🍨 In lighter news 

Today is National Sundae Day! Oh hell yes. 👏 

And to get your weekend off to the right start, here’s a baby with some excellent dance moves. 

^ Just to warn you, it’s the explicit version of the song.