X (formerly Twitter) has tons of parody and fan accounts with blue ticks. Those accounts often mimic the profile of public figures from sports, politics, and the entertainment industry. One such parody account of none other than X’s boss Elon Musk has a massive 1.5 million followers. X is seemingly aware of it and is now rolling out labels for parody and satire accounts.
X rolls out the parody labels to increase transparency on the platform
As one can imagine, parody accounts cause a lot of confusion, especially when the posts from these accounts are often confused as genuine. The latest change aims to help users differentiate between real and parody accounts. Today, the company’s safety account confirmed the rollout via a post on X.
A part of the post reads, “We’re rolling out profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts and their content on our platform.” The company also says that these labels would increase transparency. The new labels also prevent users from being deceived into thinking that such accounts belong to a public figure.
The new labels would be visible on both accounts and individual posts published by parody accounts on X. It’s not that we haven’t heard of parody labels before. Late last year, some app tinkers hinted that the company was working on these labels.
Here’s how to apply for the new parody labels
The company says that the owner of parody or satire accounts should apply for the labels themselves. To do so, one can head to X’s Settings and Privacy > Your account > Account information. On the Account Information page, one needs to select the “Parody, commentary, and fan account” option.
The platform also adds that it will soon release details about when the new labels will become mandatory for parody accounts. Therefore, it would be interesting to see how these new labels cope with misinformation that emerges from parody accounts.
X, which released its transparency report back in September, has been losing users due to some new changes around its blocking and AI training policies. Elon Musk, on the other hand, has been vocal about his plans to launch a DM-styled email service called Xmail.
