Twins broadcaster Dick Bremer to stop tweeting after Twitter scraps legacy blue checks
Dick Bremer, the play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Twins on Bally Sports North, has said he will no longer post content to Twitter following the removal of "blue check" marks from legacy verified accounts, apparently at the direction of owner Elon Musk.
Bremer's account, which has almost 50,000 followers, was among the verified accounts that lost the check mark on Thursday, with account holders told they would have to pay $8-a-month to get them back – though some larger accounts have subsequently had their checks restored.
For Bremer, the decision to stop posting on his account @dbremer_pxp was the reason he started in the first place: because the apparent end of the verification system could give rise to fraudulent accounts impersonating him.
Eleven years ago, I got into Twitter because of a parody account (using my NIL) that spewed insensitive and, at times, racist tweets. No longer able to distinguish and distance myself from such accounts, I'll no longer offer content on Twitter. I will miss you more than you/me.
— Dick Bremer (@dbremer_pxp) April 20, 2023
"Eleven years ago, I got into Twitter because of a parody account (using my NIL) that spewed insensitive and, at times, racist tweets," Bremer tweeted. "No longer able to distinguish and distance myself from such accounts, I'll no longer offer content on Twitter. I will miss you more than you/me."
There are a handful accounts on Twitter using a picture of Dick Bremer, one of them a labeled parody account called "Not Dick Bremer." Another one does not identify as parody and posted a handful of tweets regarding Middle Eastern terrorism in 2015, while a third – @RealDickBremer – makes a vague suggestion of being "fake" but also describes Bremer as running for election.
Bremer's post prompted some suggestions from Twitter users that he could just pay Twitter the $8 for the blue check, though accounts impersonating Bremer could also potentially do that, with there already being examples of parody accounts paying the $8 to become verified.
The blue check had previously been approved by Twitter to what it described as "legacy accounts" representing prominent people, companies, and organizations whose identities had been verified by the social media company. The feature was launched in 2009 after the company was sued by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa after he was impersonated on the site.
Now, blue checks can be granted to anyone provided they pay $8 and provide a phone number, and this has led to concerns from celebrities and prominent groups that they could be impersonated as their identities will no longer be verified by Twitter.
Twitter does have rules against impersonating people in a misleading and deceptive way, and accounts found to be doing so can be banned (if they're identified in time). Parody accounts are permitted provided they are labeled as such.
It was reported by Rolling Stone on Thursday that the end of legacy verified accounts sparked a "torrent of impersonation, misinformation, and general anarchy," with Twitter apparently not able to keep up. This included an account pretending to be Hillary Clinton with a slight name misspelling announcing a run in 2024, which garnered "tens of thousands of impressions" before the account was suspended, and someone posing as J.K. Rowling apologizing to the trans community.
Supporters of the ending of legacy blue checks say it offers a level playing field for users, giving people the option to pay so that their views, opinions, products and links are displayed more prominently as was the case with legacy accounts.
But among the other criticisms of the new system is it that it allows troll and bot accounts to become "verified" so their tweets to appear near the top of replies, as well as appearing more often in the "For You" section.
