X Rolls Out In-Stream Labels for Parody and Fan Accounts

After testing them out over the last few weeks, X has now officially launched its new “Parody” account labels, which aim to reduce confusion around what’s being shared, and by whom, in the app.

As you can see in this example, X’s parody account markers will reduce impersonation and misinformation in the app, by ensuring that users are aware that this is not the official or actual profile of a celebrity or brand.

Which could have also been solved by, you know, not selling verification checkmarks to anybody who’s willing to pay. But that ship has already sailed, returned to dock, and sailed again.

As explained by X:

“We’re rolling out profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts and their content on our platform. We designed these labels to increase transparency, and to ensure that users are not deceived into thinking such accounts belong to the entity being parodied.”

X says that its parody labels will be applied to both posts and accounts on X “to clearly demonstrate the source of the content you’re seeing.”

“We’ll share details soon on when the label will become mandatory for parody accounts. These accounts, like all accounts on X, must still adhere to the X Rules – particularly our Authenticity policy.”

So the new labels will be mandatory for any profile that could be confused with another, to ensure that it’s clear that the information posted by these profiles is not actually from the entity they may be impersonating.

Which should stamp out a lot of impersonation, and ensure that fewer brand and/or celebrity representations are used to dupe X users into, say, investing in some crypto scam, or announcing product updates.

Which have become fairly common in the app, both in paid ads and regular posts. The new policy will ideally ensure that more of these profiles are reported and addressed, but even then, bad actors will likely still take the risk, and will still get through X’s detection measures at times.

But overall, impersonation should become less of an issue with these new regulations in place, which will benefit X users.

As such, it’s a good addition, though again, it does seem like putting a Band-Aid on an issue caused by X moving to sell verification ticks in the first place.  

X’s parody account markers are now live on iOS, Android and web.