https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/twitter-is-using-account-verification-to-stifle-leaks-and-promote-war-propaganda-8135c806197

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@Real _ Assange is deliberately set up to be indistinguishable from @JulianAssange, which is Assange's actual Twitter account, complete with the same profile pic, the same page banner, the same bio, and the same absence of a blue checkmark badge indicating that the account has been verified by Twitter staff as the authentic account of a high-profile user. Twitter reports that it authenticates accounts which are "determined to be an account of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas."

Whatever your opinion of him and his work, Julian Assange is indisputably a character of high public interest in many of those fields. @JulianAssange has been independently confirmed to belong to Assange by the verified WikiLeaks Twitter account, and Twitter themselves openly acknowledged that they are aware that @JulianAssange is Assange's account. They know it's him, they simply refuse to verify him. And to this day they refuse to make any public statement as to why.
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So Twitter is knowingly putting its foot on the brakes of Assange's Twitter presence, which is a politically biased action just as outrageous as if they'd refused to verify a world-famous liberal or conservative pundit or politician. You will never, ever see Twitter refusing to verify a popular pundit from MSNBC or Fox, though, or any other powerful media corporation that toes the establishment line.

What makes this even more unacceptable are the types of accounts that Twitter does validate. I'm not just talking about how they'll verify a nobody media consultant in LA or some schmuck who came in ninth on Survivor a decade ago, but about the fact that they'll even verify a blatant, deceitful war psy-op posing as a child's Twitter account.

@AlabedBana, unlike @JulianAssange, is unquestionably fake, and is unquestionably malignant. The little girl desperately pleading for NATO forces to invade Syria and overthrow Assad in tweet after tweet since the account was first created in September of last year does not speak English and is far too young to have a grasp of the complex military and geopolitical ideas she promulgates. Neocon war propaganda operation Bellingcat has tried to dismiss these undeniable accusations by arguing that since the @AlabedBana page says "Account managed by mom" in its bio, nothing nefarious or deceitful is happening with the account; her mom writes the tweets and is forthcoming about it.
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They can't just come right out and say they want regime change to shore up the hegemony of the US power establishment in the region, so they make it about children instead.
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