amna: A blue checkmark on
Twitter used to be a way for
users to verify the authenticity
of an account.
But recently, CEO Elon Musk said
people must pay eight dollars a
month for the platform's,
"Twitter blue subscription
service."
As a result, journalists,
politicians, celebrities, city
and government organizations who
would not pay have been stripped
of their verified status --
causing chaos and confusion
about what information can be
trusted.
I'm joined now by Juliette
kayyem, professor at the Harvard
Kennedy school of government and
former assistant secretary at
the department of homeland
security.
It is good to have you here.
To get the blue checked
previously, there was a process.
Your identity had to be
verified.
What are the real world
implications of that
verification process going away?
>> It may Twitter the most
reliable platform, especially in
times of disaster or emergency.
It ensured the way the algorithm
worked as when something bad
happens, a journalist,
government official, emergency
management shares, their
information, what they were
seeing and hearing and what they
wanted community members to do.
Run, hide, evacuate,
shelter-in-place, these are
important decisions to be made
with a few moments notice and
they were evaluated with the
blue checkmark.
But Twitter feeds, think of a
school shooting.
Twitter feeds are not helpful or
giving you information in
real-time.
Twitter used to be good at
saving lives.
I know it is hard to believe,
but it became a way in which
public safety agencies were
pushing out information and a
way in which communities and
information was being heard by
government officials.
A system called api.
The earthquake in Turkey,
governor -- government officials
would follow what was happening
on Twitter.
There are a lot of people under
the rubble, over here they don't
have water.
That would help drive resources.
Now that whole system is
unreliable, inaccessible.
We talk a lot about what is bad
about Twitter but at one stage
it was really good.
Amna: There is also the
misinformation.
What are worst-case
consequences?
>> We sought on the first day
when the blue checkmark could be
bought.
The national weather service
name was bought so if you were
looking for the national weather
service, which is the best
assessor of the weather and
pushes out information based on
where you are, someone bought
the checkmark so if you went to
national weather service, you
might be watching that.
Now we are seeing it like new
York City services.
Amna: Fake accounts.
>> Right.
And in a disaster, time is your
most valuable commodity and
Twitter was really good at
pushing out reliable information
quickly.
It was a role that was important
as company.
Amna: What about Elon Musk's
approach to journalism?
Our pbs newshour account does
still tweet out reporting and
information but musk stripped
the New York Times of status,
tweeted the real tragedy is
there propaganda isn't even
interesting.
130 7 million followers.
He has suspended accounts of
journalists who follow him.
He added a state affiliated
media label to NPR's account.
>> Journalists are critical of
him were reporting those who are
critical of him and now he is
trolling them.
He seems to view Twitter as his
personal hit list and he makes
it impossible for legitimate
journalistic institutions to get
out legitimate information in
real-time.
Will he stop doing it?
One hopes.
He seems like someone who would
get bored with it and move on to
the next thing but legitimate
damage is being done because it
Mr. Zentz -- because it
misrepresents some journalism
and elevates others who should
not be called journalists and
undermines places like pbs and
NPR.
Amna: The Massachusetts air
national guardsmen accused of
leaking intelligence documents.
In a previous role, you oversaw
the Massachusetts air national
Guard.
How are you taking this in?
>> It seems inconceivable but
one point 3 million people have
top-secret clearances.
That is too many people.
Lots of people have access to
classified information and there
were two gaps.
One, he was doing all sorts of
things when he was 16 years old.
Dr. Things at all.
Racism -- not clear that things
at all.
Racism, threats.
He was somehow excused.
And then he was given access to
everything.
It is inconceivable to me that
he had access to everything that
he was then able to release.
So the question is, how did he
get clearance of the first
place, why did he have access
for his particular job, and over
months he is putting this stuff
online and no one at the
Pentagon catches it?
He was putting it on gaming
platforms for months.
Amna: A lot of questions.
Juliette, thank you for being
here.