WHY IDENTITY VERIFICATION IS CRITICAL FOR ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY AND MAINTAINING INTEGRITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Not so?long ago,?information?by trusted sources?was?investigated and validated for accuracy before?being?published and?broadcasted?to the world.?News?publications such as the?New York Times and?Wall?Street?Journal were?less criticized?and consumers relied on writeups and rigorous product testing from Consumer Reports?as opposed to reviews on Amazon.?There were few stories, if any, of fake news in those outlets, and if ever there was misrepresented news?or reviews, it would be acknowledged?and redacted in fear of?damaging?brand reputation.?

?Today, this landscape is completely shifted.?71% of the news that influences?our daily decisions to come from social media platforms, created, edited, published, by handles that we don’t know, or think we do know.?To add, a?false story is much more likely to go viral than a real story, reaching 1,500 people six times quicker, on average, than a true story does.??

Media can be forged, identities can be fraudulent, and credentials [handles] can go unchecked. This creates an imbalance in the information that is shared, whom it is shared by, whom it influences, and what actions are taken. In 2020, as Americans anticipated updates from battleground states counting ballots, Twitter was removing knockoff news accounts and labeling tweets that?were?sharing?inaccurate information from fake Associated Press Twitter accounts.?The spread of misinformation?also seems to be amplified by humans, not bots, which raises the question of the possible regulation around the distribution of news content across social platforms in order to disincentivize the spread of misinformation.?

The Convergence of Identity Verification and?Social Media?

Over the past decade, two seemingly incongruent industries have grown quietly and rapidly,?yet the growth across both of them has not surprised those of us watching the explosion of identity fraud and the need to reevaluate?how information of life-altering proportions reaches the masses.?The?coronavirus?pandemic, however, has forever entangled?the two industries.??

Since the pandemic,?Twitter?has seen an increase of?70+ million active users,?and?users have flocked to?Instagram to?shop?in?record numbers. Concerns about online misinformation?are?reaching?an all-time high?and rightfully so.?While identity fraud flourished, so did consumers’?digital?identity literacy.?As they became?more conscious about the information?being shared about them on their favorite platforms, they also demanded more information security from those sites. Earlier this year, The Football Association?and a number of English football bodies united for?a social media boycott, calling for?better?ID verification protocols?to address?ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football.??

The Importance of Enhancing Identity Verification Methods?

Here?are?four?important?reasons why identity?verification matters in social media platforms?to establish?credibility and maintain integrity.?

Identity Verification Can Establish Credibility, Combatting the Speed at Which?Information?is Shared?

Though?48%?of U.S. adults say they “often” or “sometimes” get news from social media, it’s easy to see that the?real?trustworthiness of this news is in stark comparison to?an article from?a newspaper that’s been?checked?and?accredited,?or?even to?content from?a brand that’s well trusted.?A?platform?is?more likely to be a source of credible news?and?reviews?if?its?users’ identities have been verified.???

Fake news isn’t the only thing to fear these days?as you browse for information and ideas online. Companies are also fighting back against fake reviews. To prevent fake reviews from further proliferating on its website, Amazon is partnering with social media companies. In June 2021,?an Amazon memo?on “Creating Trustworthy Reviews” said in part, “When we detect fake reviews that may have been perpetrated outside Amazon, we regularly report the activity to the social media company where it occurred. In the first three months of 2020, we reported more than 300 groups to social media companies, who then took a median time of 45 days to shut down those groups from using their service to perpetrate abuse.”?

As it relates to social media influencers, it’s easy to find a “subject matter expert” speaking out about a certain topic. Users tend to look at a person’s follower count; and if it’s sizable, they’re deemed credible. This is why, to protect people from being misled, the FTC laid out specific guidelines for brands to follow when they work with influencers. Followers need to understand whether what they're seeing is an ad or an organic post by the influencer. ?

Identity Verification Ensures?the?Value?of?Social?Currency?

Forging a connection with others—that’s the whole point of social influencers and platforms. But how does a?user?know if it’s “connecting” with or “following” real people? In the social sphere, follower count?remains?the most valuable currency.?But those followers aren’t necessarily real people.?In many instances, followers, likes, and comments?are?bought and paid for?or?elicited?almost entirely?from?bots.??

by verifying identitied, the focus becomes on the quality and authenticity of social currency rather than the quantity of that currency

When auditing tool?HypeAuditor?ran a search for celebrity influencers with the fakest followers, it found that 40% of Kylie Jenner’s Instagram followers may be fake; 37% of Kendall Jenner’s 157.6 million followers may be fake, and 34% of Kim Kardashian West’s 212.3 million followers are also fake.??

Social influencers can be powerful brand marketing tools, but?these sorts of statistics?call into question the?true?value of the followership currency, especially because “ghost followers” aren’t actually engaging with the brand.?By verifying users’ identities, the focus becomes on the quality and authenticity of social currency rather than the quantity of that currency. This makes?it?more?authentic, more?valuable.???

And if the number of articles online about “How to?Remove?Ghost?Followers?I?Purchased” is any indication,?brands and influencers?are ready to get real again.??

Identity Verification?Balances?Accuracy?and?Freedom of?Speech??

Consumers value?the first amendment.?However, at the same time, they want it to be easier?to determine if something on social?media?is true or false, whether?it’s?a product review or a piece of news.?There’s also tension between the balance of privacy and national security, between hope?and fear, between capitalism and cynicism.?These conversations are?contributing to more and more policies?that aim to help?verify?that people are whom they say they are before they join a social platform.?

In July, federal lawmakers introduced a bill seeking to hold companies like Facebook and Twitter accountable for?spreading?misinformation about COVID-19.?Roughly half?of U.S. adults?should be just fine with that, as that’s how many?said?the government should take steps to restrict false information, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content.?That same?survey, from Pew Research Survey,?found that tolerance for misinformation shared online is?in sharp decline. The share of adults who say freedom of information should be protected—even if it means some misinformation is published online—has decreased from 58% to 50%.?

Identity Verification?Facilitates?Responsible?Innovation?

Throughout the?innovation process,?social?media?platforms are writing history.?In so doing, they take on a huge responsibility.?As the?Brookings Institute?recently reported, “In a contemporary world of fast news transmission and speedy reactions, technology’s enablement of skewed truths can lead to misinterpretations, quick judgments, and outright falsehoods about what happens. Both events and people become easy to manipulate when information is quickly forming and incomplete.”??

Now,?more social entrepreneurs are asking how to be both innovative and responsible at the same time.?Baking scalable automated identity verification into?a social platform’s?business model?is an important part of ensuring the?entire?innovation process is responsible?and?checks and balances are in place to ensure?users'?credibility.??

An?identity verification process can hold people more accountable for their behavior online, ensure their ‘content’ is validated, and fight against the spread of misinformation.?These checks and balances are meant to enable our first amendment, not suppress it. At the end of the day, it’s not about challenging what people say, but challenging if who says it is trustworthy.??