We investigate how users perceive social media account verification, how those perceptions compare to platform practices, and what happens when a gap emerges. We use recent changes in Twitter's verification process as a natural experiment, where the meaning and types of verification indicators rapidly and significantly shift. The project consists of two components: a user survey and a measurement of verified Twitter accounts. In the survey study, we ask a demographically representative sample of U.S. respondents (n = 299) about social media account verification requirements both in general and for particular platforms. We also ask about experiences with online information sources and digital literacy. More than half of respondents misunderstand Twitter's criteria for blue check account verification, and over 80% of respondents misunderstand Twitter's new gold and gray check verification indicators. Our analysis of survey responses suggests that people who are older or have lower digital literacy may be modestly more likely to misunderstand Twitter verification. In the measurement study, we randomly sample 15 million English language tweets from October 2022. We obtain account verification status for the associated accounts in November 2022, just before Twitter's verification changes, and we collect verification status again in January 2022. The resulting longitudinal dataset of 2.85 million accounts enables us to characterize the accounts that gained and lost verification following Twitter's changes. We find that accounts posting conservative political content, exhibiting positive views about Elon Musk, and promoting cryptocurrencies disproportionately obtain blue check verification after Twitter's changes. We close by offering recommendations for improving account verification indicators and processes.

翻译：本研究探讨用户如何理解社交媒体账号认证，这些认知与平台实践之间的差异，以及当两者出现错位时会发生什么。我们以推特认证流程近期的变化作为自然实验，观察到认证标识的含义与类型发生了迅速且显著的转变。项目包含两个部分：用户调查与认证推特账号测量。在调查研究中，我们向具有人口统计学代表性的美国受访者样本（n=299）询问了社交媒体账号认证的一般要求及特定平台要求，同时收集了其在线信息来源与数字素养相关经历。超过半数受访者误解了推特蓝勾认证的标准，而超80%受访者则误解了推特新推出的金勾与灰勾认证标识。调查分析表明，年龄较大或数字素养较低的群体可能更容易产生误解。在测量研究中，我们随机抽取2022年10月的1500万条英文推文，于2022年11月（推特认证规则变更前）获取关联账号的认证状态，并于2023年1月再次收集认证数据。最终形成的285万账号纵向数据集，使我们能够刻画推特认证变更后获得或失去认证的账号特征。研究发现：发布保守派政治内容、对埃隆·马斯克持正面态度以及推广加密货币的账号在规则变更后更可能获得蓝勾认证。最后，我们针对改进账号认证标识与流程提出建议。