Blue Verification Checks on Homes is Not Real

On Friday, a San Francisco-based artist Danielle Baskin posted a tweet that went viral in just a few hours, eventually gaining over 40 million impressions. The tweet shared an alleged new service in the San Francisco area allowing residents to apply for a “Verified Badge Crest” mounted on the front of their houses for a fee of $3,000 – similar to social media’s blue checks for verified users. This would allow them to easily be identified as public figures in real life. The tweet was accompanied by photoshopped images of homes with the Blue Check, which at first glance looks relatively real. Baskin said the idea came when she was walking in her neighborhood and noticed some homes had plaster shields adorning their façade. She posted a question about it on Twitter and received a response that “this was the blue check before Twitter.” The reactions from the public varied greatly. Although some realized it was a prank, many people believed it and shared the news as factual on their own social media.

The fake service even came with a website where almost 500 people made applications for the crest, although some applications were not from real people. Baskin realized the post “started to take on a life of its own” and decided to put a disclaimer under the post and on the website. She is quoted as saying, “but everyone else thought the website was real. I did what I thought was a mediocre Photoshop job.” One person even went far enough to tweet that the Blue Checks increased property value and could be searched on Google. Despite the disclaimers, many people believed the posts and continued to share them.