An account spreading pro-Saudi messages actually belonged to a deceased Weather Channel meteorologist.

Several verified Twitter accounts have been taken over by pro-Saudi operatives and some have been used to promote Saudi Arabia or its leadership, according to an academic who researches digital propaganda and Twitter bots.

At least four verified Twitter accounts, including one that belonged to a US meteorologist who died over two years ago, appear to have been hacked and sold to pro-Saudi entities, Marc Owen Jones wrote in a blog post on Saturday.

A verified Twitter account usually signals that the person maintaining it is who they claim to be.

One of the verified hacked accounts originally belonged to Weather Channel meteorologist David Schwartz who died in 2016.

That account, @TWCDaveSchwartz, has now been followed by dozens of pro-Saudi and Saudi-based accounts.

The account itself appears to have posted a single tweet, which praises the al-Qassim region of Saudi Arabia, and its governor, Prince Faisal bin Mishal. But a screenshot of the same account taken in 2018 shows it was used to promote tourism in Saudi Arabia at the time.

Buying accounts from hackers

Last year, Twitter suspended its verification programme because many users interpreted the blue mark that accompanies verified accounts as an endorsement by the company.

As a result, access to verified accounts has become coveted among hackers, who sell the login information online.

“Verified accounts are a particularly attractive target for fraudsters because the assumption is that it is a legitimate account,” said Nimmo.

According to Jones, it is not unlikely that the pro-Saudi operatives bought access to these pages on one of the many forums where access to hacked accounts is sold.

“Mashable did a report saying people would pay upwards of $1,200 for a verified Instagram account,” he said.

2 / Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception. We should have addressed this earlier but did not prioritize the work as we should have.

Source: Read Full Article