Colbert Report tweet mixup shows Twitter 'verification' is completely meaningless

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Last night, Stephen Colbert caused an uproar with a racist tweet. The tweet read "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."

The tweet was later deleted, but BuzzFeed screen captured it and reported on some of the resulting outrage.

So, pretty bad, right?

Except that it wasn't actually Colbert who sent the tweet. Or even his team. Or maybe even anyone he knows. As he later explained, he uses a completely different account:

#CancelColbert - I agree! Just saw @ColbertReport tweet. I share your rage.
Who is that, though? I'm @StephenAtHome 
http://t.co/e0Pqz7U7i9

Someone running the offending account later explained that it's actually run by Comedy Central, which airs Colbert's show.

This is a Comedy Central account, with no oversight from Stephen/show. Here is quoted line in context http://t.co/UFnaFfOSpn #cancelcolbert

For the record @ColbertReport is not controlled by Stephen Colbert or his show. He is @StephenAtHome Sorry for the confusion #CancelColbert

As of the time I was writing this Thursday night, it was still unclear what exactly happened and what kind of fallout there would be.

But whatever the problem was, the controversy exposed the meaninglessness of Twitter's "verified accounts."

These special kind of accounts include a blue checkmark next to the user's name. They're supposed to prove that the person using the account is who she says she is. In this case, however, both Colbert's personal account and the offending Comedy Central account are "verified." Technically, maybe that's right; one is verified as Colbert himself, and the other is "verified" as some ambiguous show account.

But I wonder how many of the 1.01 million people who follow @ColbertReport realize that it's not actually Colbert. The account uses the name of his show and his picture. At least last night, it didn't have any disclaimer in the bio about not being connected to the man himself. If you're active on Twitter you'd see the difference, but if you're a casual user like most people and just see a tweet here and there, @ColbertReport could sure seem like the real deal.

To that point, many of the people who expressed outrage did not immediately seem to realize that @ColbertReport was not Stephen Colbert.

In any case, fake Twitter accounts pose as celebrities all the time, but significantly, those fake accounts are not verified.

The Colbert incident shows thus shows us two things: A) that people trust verified accounts, and B) that they shouldn't, or at least they shouldn't take them at face value. After all they may be "verified" as something completely unexpected, offering the appearance of certainty when really there is none.

— Jim Dalrymple II

Twitter: @jimmycdii