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So you love Apple Inc, enjoy a steady supply of technology news, appreciate British humour and are fond of Twitter, so you become an avid ‘follower’ of famous actor, comedian and tech enthusiast Stephen Fry… but can you be sure you’re not following a witty impostor?
For your future reference, this is Stephen Fry. Honest. Image: vpjayant/Flickr.
More pointedly, with more and more fake celebrity pages appearing on Twitter, the hugely popular micro-blogging service is looking to introduce a new verification system that requires supposedly famous account holders to prove their identities before being granted a Twitter page and a crowd of adoring followers.
The growing trend of fake celebrities posting to Twitter has resulted in complaints from the likes of R&B star Kanye West, while Tony La Russa, manager of U.S. baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals, actually sued the San Francisco-based blog network for not preventing an impostor from assuming his online identity.
According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the identification verification process will be tested during the summer in order to officially rubber stamp the account registration of “public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes and other well-known individuals” that could potentially fall victim to fakery.
Once approved, Twitter will endorse each celebrity page with an official on-screen seal of verification so that prospective followers are able to immediately gauge its credibility – or lack thereof.
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