Slashdot Mirror
Some Instagram Employees Sell Verification For Thousands of Dollars (mashable.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report from Mashable, written by Kerry Flynn: "I mean if Mashable wants to pay for it, I can get you a blue check over night," reads a recent Twitter direct message. This is a guy who knows a guy, a middleman in the black market for Instagram verification, where anyone from a seasoned publicist to a 22-year-old digital marketer will offer to verify an account -- for a price. The fee is anywhere from a bottle of wine to $15,000, according to a dozen sources who have sold verification, bought verification for someone else, or directly know someone who has done one or the other. "These guys pay all their bills from one to two blue checks a month," another message from the middleman added later. The product for sale isn't a good or a service. It's a little blue check designated for public figures, celebrities, and brands on Instagram. It grants users a prime spot in search as well as access to special features. More importantly, it's a status symbol. But it's clear from people who spoke on the condition of anonymity, many of whom have their own blue checkmarks, that a black market for Instagram verification is alive and well. "Instagram has helped create this underground market," the report adds. "While anyone can apply for verification on Facebook and on Twitter, Instagram has made itself exclusive and therefore rather elitist. Influencers who have press clippings and work with big brands on sponsorship deals often can't manage to get that elusive blue checkmark, according to several verified and unverified influencers and people who have sold verification."
Instagram? Isn't that just yet another facetube wannabe?
Okay.
Or do companies like Twitter also have employees who will yank a target's blue checkmark for a fee (assuming a halfway plausible excuse exists)?
So, some people behave badly. Other people fund poor behavior. Nobody's putting a gun to their heads... it's done voluntarily. That said, glad to know what the title blue checkmark is worth, or not worth, as the case may be.
lol... "I'm a somebody when I'm on Instagram!"
Since they didn't have any way to verify the verifications, this seems to be designed as a fringe benefit for the employees.
Or they are too stupid to not think out the ramifications of their process ahead of time, Which is of course, more likely, and scarier when you imagine all the other things they didn't foresee, like security, privacy...
I'm guessing the workers doing the verification aren't paid much more than the janitors...
Oh you mean the Kardashian slut(s) daily photo gallery. In that case, I care even less. It's almost as bad as, "You not part of the in-crowd" mentality and for a majority of us, that is a good thing.
More than I need them.
What is "verification" in the context of Instagram, and why is it important? In fact, what is Instagram, and why is *it* important?
Someone please explain like I'm 5, m'kay? Thanks.
Why is this drivel on Slashdot?
Another great place to waste your time. Hopefully it will disintegrate as it's stock is doing.
This is the lamest thing I've ever heard of.
What are the verifying? None of these articles explain what it is, why its valuable. Journalists just assume everyone is an instagram expert. Bad writing! Can anyone explain?
Yet one more example why Instagram is the most over-rated piece of crap app out there..ugh..I have no idea how this garbage became so popular, it's an abysmal platform from nearly any perspective.
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches-
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches-Had none upon thars.
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
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Occam's razor say the majority of these offers are scams.
I commute via train every day. Here's what everybody under 25 is doing during the whole darn train ride: Either scrolling aimlessly on instagram, or look at their own pictures. So with like everything that's cool, you have to wait for the next generation.
Come on Insta-Gram show us your GREAT BALLS ON FIRE.
All the Soros backed anti-Trump race baiter Twitter accounts are "verified" too. Genies out of the ebottle.
There are quite a view verifieds, moreso on Twitter, that are non-notable, mostly junior-ish tech workers in SF/NY who clearly just have friends who work there.
this whole thread is about how all of you are too cool for Instagram, and how it's really dumb and boring.
Though the circlejerk is soooo hot right now, it makes this thread dumb and boring.
Perhaps it shows that you are dumb and boring as well.