After the incident involving fake handle of IIT Bombay, Twitter’s account verification policy comes under question

Recent tweets from a verified twitter handle named ‘SJMSoM, IIT Bombay’ against the BJP appeared on the social media website. The tweet suggested that religious people are not ‘stupid enough’ to vote for the BJP. This particular account turned out to be fake and statements by IIT proved that the account was not being operated by IIT or any other registered authority under the institution. The blue tick in the particular account puts a question on Twitter’s credibility and its screening and monitoring process. A fake twitter handle was given a blue tick by the social media platform. A blue tick on Twitter is given only to accounts that have been verified for their genuineness and originality.

The Twitter bio of the fake account read, ‘The official Twitter Account of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management IIT Bombay’. It is important to raise questions regarding Twitter’s policy of providing verification to these fake accounts on its platform. The account in question was made in 2009 and since 10 years has been operating under the name of IIT Bombay. IIT Bombay has its own twitter handle which confirmed that the account which posted a tweet against the BJP was fake and has nothing to do with IIT Bombay. The account was made by students and the authorities had no information about such an account being in operation.

It is highly irresponsible of Twitter to let a fake account function for so long under the name of a reputed institution. The social media platform did not bother to verify if the particular account was even IIT Bombay. The account is responsible for spreading hate against the BJP government through their tweets, in which they urged the voters of West Bengal to not vote for the BJP. This raises questions about the authenticity of many other accounts operating on this social media platform. Seeing all this, a question comes to mind – Is Twitter providing all the anti-BJP accounts with blue ticks of verification without checking their authenticity?

The account has been deleted now but the fact that it was operating for a decade under a fake association with a reputed institution is matter of concern. The sheer carelessness on Twitter’s part is not acceptable as it handles personal information of significant organisations and individuals.

While IIT Bombay has completely rejected any association with the account, the social media website has brought down the account in question. It is important for all the social media platforms to realize the importance of verification of accounts as the fake ones can be used for spreading political propaganda and hate.