Twitter disables verified users’ ability to tweet amid massive hack

To die, to tweet – to tweet, perchance to dream? The Twitter spout has been turned off for verified users, and Twitter hasn’t been this pure in years.

In an apparent attempt to mitigate the damage from a massive hack, Twitter has cut off the ability to tweet for verified users. 

The hack, which began Wednesday afternoon, targeted politicians and celebrities, and affected users including former President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and many more. 

Hijacked accounts posted scam tweets soliciting bitcoin transfers from followers. Although most of the tweets were taken down within minutes, the scammers have so far succeeded in getting over $50,000 in bitcoin transfers. The hack is also ongoing: Elon Musk’s account has tweeted and deleted the same scam tweet multiple times over the last two hours.

While the hackers appear to be after bitcoin, the fact that this appears to be a sitewide — and ongoing — incident is a huge cause for concern beyond the bitcoin theft. Considering that President Trump uses  Twitter to announce national policy, the thought of a compromised Trump account is terrifying.

The move to turn off tweeting for verified accounts seems like a blunt tool to prevent the hackers from causing further damage, and potentially hacking more people, such as Trump. 

However, it’s also left the celebrities, journalists, comedians, and generally verbal people of the world with a lot of pent up quips amid a historic digital crisis.

The people, how you say, are loving it.

Around 3:40 pm PT, Twitter appeared to reinstate the ability of blue checkmarks to Tweet. But then rescinded it again. Do you hear the people sing?