The Impact Of Misinformation: Dissecting The Viral 'Twitter API Leak' Incident

In the fast-paced world of social media, misinformation can spread like wildfire. On July 25, 2024, an X user known as "Anti-Fascist Turtle" ignited a storm by posting an image that purported to show a list of conservative accounts allegedly permitted to use racial slurs without consequences on the platform. This incident not only raised eyebrows but also sparked a larger conversation about the responsibilities of social media platforms and how misinformation can distort public perception.

The viral nature of the post highlights a critical issue: how quickly false information can become accepted as truth. In this case, the screenshot claimed to reveal a "Twitter API leak," suggesting that certain users were granted immunity from moderation policies. The rapid spread of this claim, combined with the subsequent suspension of the original poster's account, only fueled conspiracy theories and mistrust towards the platform.

This article delves into the intricacies of the incident, examining the claims made, the reactions from experts, and the eventual clarification that the screenshot was indeed fabricated. By analyzing the events and their implications, we aim to shed light on the broader issues of misinformation and media literacy in today's digital landscape.

• Fact Check Rating Container
• Understanding Okta's Role
• Moderation Practices on X
• The Vx-underground Connection

On July 25, 2024, an X user named "Anti-Fascist Turtle" posted an image allegedly showing a list of accounts on that social platform that were allowed to break the site's terms of service without penalty, including a list of racial slurs the accounts were supposedly allowed to use. The accounts included prominent conservative accounts like EndWokeness and LibsOfTikTok, former U.S. President Donald Trump, X owner Elon Musk, and the official account of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The "Anti-Fascist Turtle" account was suspended by the platform not long after making the post.

But it was too late — the post had already gone viral, and the original poster's account being suspended only increased how fast the image spread. The original poster dubbed the screenshot and its supposed findings a "Twitter API leak," and many users used that phrasing when sharing the post.

Snopes readers wrote to ask us to investigate whether the Twitter API leak and its alleged findings were real. We found that the image was fake, and that the findings were not real.

Understanding Okta's Role

According to cybersecurity expert Maia Arson Crimew, the screenshot claimed to show a "configuration file" for X hosted on an Okta server. The screenshot contained a list of accounts supposedly "excluded from automatic moderation" and a list of words that those accounts allegedly weren't being moderated for using. Okta is widely known as an "identity provider" — it produces software that allows businesses to add authentication to their sites.

When users sign into a modern website, they either provide a username and password or click a button to sign in with another platform, like Google or Facebook. Okta's software is comparable to the "sign in with Google" button, but it offers even more power and integration behind the scenes.

Former X employees mentioned that the company used Okta, but only internally. Furthermore, Okta's software plays no part in user moderation. Thus, finding information related to user moderation on an Okta server would be unusual, akin to finding a live shark in a refrigerator.

Moderation Practices on X

One major issue with the supposed leak is that X already has a moderation feature that can theoretically accomplish similar tasks. Internet moderation is often automated because the volume of content posted is too high for human moderators to review everything manually. However, automated moderation has its challenges, including mass reporting brigades.

To prevent such issues, X can flag individual account profiles, requiring any moderation actions against those profiles to be manually approved. While X does not officially specify what this tool is for, Crimew explained that social media sites often use similar tools for three primary reasons: protecting against mass reporting, ensuring that government accounts are not targeted by automatic moderation, and complying with requests from law enforcement agencies.

The Vx-underground Connection

The story of the viral screenshot can be traced back to Vx-underground, a research group for malware that claims to have the largest collection of malware code samples in the world. According to a thread posted by Vx-underground's account, their administrator received an anonymous DM that contained a link to the now-infamous screenshot. After a brief review, they shared the information with their Discord community without verifying its legitimacy.

The group attempted to investigate the leak but was unable to reproduce any evidence, leading them to pass the screenshot along to others for further investigation. However, once a redacted version of the post was shared on X, the members of Vx-underground found themselves scrambling as the misinformation spread rapidly.

Despite the whirlwind of activity, Vx-underground chose not to publish a correction, believing the issue would fade away quickly. Nevertheless, they maintained that they had not been able to independently verify any of the information, emphasizing the need for caution in the dissemination of unverified claims.

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