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| Twitter verified a fake Norwegian government account |
Twitter has verified the fake account of Norway's new finance minister, but the company doesn't appear to be to blame. As Norwegian tech website NRKbeta first reported, the Prime Minister's Office and NSM have redirected a fake account for verification.
Norway's Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Widom does not have a Twitter account. The report says so many fake accounts pretending to be Widom have surfaced since his September election, that the Treasury tweeted last month that the Treasury secretary did not have one.
"We would like to inform you that Treasury Secretary Trygve Slagsvold Widow does not have a Twitter account," the tweet read. As a result, all accounts that appeared in his name were fake and reported.
However, the difference from this last fake account is that it has been flagged with a blue tick by the platform. According to Norwegian technology website NRKbeta, the fake Vidom account tweeted against the party's guidelines.
However, Twitter does not appear to be responsible for this error. The NRKbeta found that the Prime Minister's Office and the Norwegian Security Agency were to blame.
An error in reporting led to the fake account being verified.
"The account has now been deleted and we have made sure that fake accounts are not verified," she added. In addition, we are currently reviewing our reporting procedures to ensure this does not happen again.
Following the recent elections, the Prime Minister's Office and the Norwegian Security Service were tasked with checking politicians' social media accounts. It appears that the fake account deceived the two organizations and was sent to Twitter and verified.
This time it's not Twitter's fault
NRKbeta said: "It appears that the person who coordinated the review of the PM's office deceived the account and sent it to Twitter with the accounts of other newly appointed ministers. These newly appointed ministers have been reviewed."
The company recently updated its verification process to specifically prevent fake accounts from being created. After nearly four years of redesigning the system, verification resumed in May last year. But after accidentally checking two fake accounts, I closed them for a while.
No matter how carefully the company completes the verification process, their system still cannot prevent human error.