--- title: "Elon Musk Selling Blue Checkmarks to Literal Terrorists" description: "The social network formerly known as Twitter is once again in the midst of an extremism crisis under Elon Musk's leadership." date: "2024-02-15" modified: "2024-02-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-x-checkmark-terrorists" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "terrorism" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Selling Blue Checkmarks to Literal Terrorists ![The social network formerly known as Twitter is once again in the midst of an extremism crisis under Elon Musk's leadership.]() *\Image: Steve Granitz via Getty / Futurism\* ## Sanctioned Services The social network formerly known as Twitter is once again in the [midst of an extremism crisis]() under Elon Musk's leadership. In a [new report](), the Tech Transparency Project found sanctioned entities — including leaders of Hezbollah, an Islamic fundamentalist group in Lebanon that has been [designated a terrorist organization]() by the United States for nearly 30 years — have been given blue verification checkmarks on X-formerly-Twitter. Not only is the granting of paid verification checkmarks to known terrorists very much against the site's own rules, but as TPP points out, it could also cause new legal issues for X and its owners. According to X's "[Purchaser Terms of Service]()," people who buy subscriptions to the site "may not purchase or use a Paid Service if \[they\] are a person with whom U.S. persons are not permitted to have dealings pursuant to economic sanctions, including, without limitation, sanctions administered by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or any other applicable sanctions authority." Despite being very much [on the OFAC list](), accounts associated with Hezbollah leaders, including one purporting to represent its longtime secretary-general Hasan Nasrallah and others seemingly associated with multiple of his deputies, were granted verification. Although the [Nasrallah account]() and the others TPP found no longer sport the blue check that denotes a paid subscription to the free website, archived snapshots show that it had one [as recently as January](). X's terrorist blue check problem also extended to other individuals associated with sanctioned groups, including Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iranian state TV and militias, and Russia's Tinkoff Bank, which [lost its US credit rating]() in 2022 as a result of the country's invasion of Ukraine. ## Duck For Cover When TPP reached out to X about the accounts, a representative said only that they would look into the matter. Hours after the report was published, as the organization notes, the verification checkmarks for all 28 of the accounts it mentioned were removed, and one account belonging to the Iran-backed militia Harakat al-Nujaba was suspended. Much like a [damning report]() issued last year about mainstream advertisements appearing alongside tweets posted by domestic accounts that shared hateful rhetoric, TPP found that there were ads featured in the replies to 19 of the 28 sanction-adjacent accounts it looked into. Back when Twitter was still [owned by Jack Dorsey](), people and organizations associated with sanctioned groups and countries were able to tweet because, as [legal experts argued]() at the time, money wasn't changing hands in the process. But by taking money from these individuals and organizations, TPP argues, X may have opened the door for its own sanctions mess. Despite those accounts' de-verification, the money was still paid — and it could expose the site to even more trouble than it was [in to begin with](). **More on Twitter fails**: *[Twitter's Idiotic Response to AI Porn: Block All Searches for “Taylor Swift”]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()