X will send your ID, face to Israeli-based firm to verify your account
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X will be cooperating with an Israeli-based tech firm to verify the identity of users who wish to verify their accounts under a new system.
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A partially completed "X" sign rests atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, on Friday, July 28, 2023 (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
X, formerly known as Twitter, will be collaborating with an Israeli-based tech firm on the verification of users' accounts through a new means, alleging that this is in a bid to combat impersonation.
Users will be required to upload a photo of their ID and take a selfie in order to get verified, while independent researcher Nima Owji shared a screenshot of what seems to be the stipulations of the verification process, chief among which is the usage of a device that has an "uncovered, working" camera.
The main issue, however, is the fact that X owner Elon Musk is collaborating with an Israeli-based third-party identity intelligence company, Au10tix, for the verification feature.
Read next: Elon Musk says US government can read private Twitter DMs
The platform will be storing the images of the user's ID and their biometric data for 30 days while allegedly using the information "for the purposes of safety and security, including preventing impersonation."
Au10tix is only obtaining the data to confirm the user's identity.
The Israeli occupation is notorious for its continuous violations in cyberspace, wherein it was found to be responsible for virtual extortion and blackmail campaigns.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) slammed "Israel's" tech industry as a threat not just to Palestinians but also "to the world."
The statement comes following an investigation carried out earlier by a consortium of journalists, who work for 30 different news outlets, including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País, exposing a private Israeli cyber-espionage company based in "Modi'in", a new illegal settlement established between "Tel Aviv" and occupied Al-Quds, responsible for virtual extortion, blackmail campaigns, and disinformation operations worldwide, targeting presidential-level elections in countries, manipulating lawsuits, influencing nuclear energy deals, and meddling in cryptocurrency prices.
Read more: After Pegasus Scandal, Gantz Heads to Paris for Discussions
The consortium of journalists, led by French NGO Forbidden Stories, revealed that the cyber unit was run by 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative, Tal Hanan, working under the name of "Jorge".
The "Israeli disinformation technology, developed by former intel officers in Team Jorge, has been used in manipulating elections and rigging votes in 33 countries in Africa, US, Europe, Asia & Latin America," the statement continued.
BDS added, "Apartheid Israel's military technologies, tested on Palestinians, empower dictators' and authoritarian regimes' surveillance, torture, even assassination of human rights activists, journalists," and elected officials.
Israeli-led spyware industry has been embroiled in a seemingly never-ending spate of extremely prominent controversies. Revelations that it sells its spyware to authoritarian regimes, that its products have been used to spy on journalists, activists, politicians, and even potentially world leaders, and accusations that it played a role in murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death have put it at the center of international criticism.
In December 2022, US senior senators said they will look into the government's purchase and use of strong spyware developed by two Israeli hacking firms called Graphite, as Congress passed legislation aimed at limiting the spread of hacking tools.
Before Musk took over the company and turned its verification program into a for-profit feature that only required users to pay a fee at the end of each month, Twitter had a different program and features for verified accounts.
Read next: Chaos ticks on Twitter after Musk enforces free blue checkmarks
As a mechanism put in place to stop misinformation, verification has been free and serves as a confirmation of validity for the accounts of users such as governments, journalists, celebrities, and sports leaders.
Verification was just to verify that someone was real and their account was genuine rather than someone pretending to be a celebrity, for example. The rules back then stipulated that people were eligible for a blue checkmark if they supplied either official website links, a photograph of a legitimate government-issued ID, or an official email address.
Twitter began rolling out the contentious new paid subscription system in November, which Musk ordered staff to construct a week after taking over the platform.
Days into his leadership of one of the world's major venues for dialogue and activism, his promises and provocations elicited a flood of responses, including warnings from the United Nations and an apology from Twitter's co-founder.
His intention to reduce content monitoring on the site has alarmed UN rights chief Volker Turk, who urged him to make human rights a priority for the social network. "Twitter has a responsibility to avoid amplifying content that results in harm to people's rights," Turk said in his open letter.
The new version of Twitter Blue, which costs $8 per month, gives users a blue checkmark and benefits like fewer ads in their feeds, more characters in their posts, and priorities in feeds, to name a few.
