@feditips how do you verify links on your profile? And can this be done for links to sites that you don't own? ( Eg. YouTube)

@feditips I don’t believe that NPR runs an account here. Some of the accounts are verified as reliably posting from NPR’s Twitter, but none seem to make their own posts

@feditips If it's hello.coop/verified.coop/press.coop, that's a fake.

@feditips Washington post figured this out nicely https://washpost.engineering/heres-how-the-washington-post-verified-its-journalists-on-mastodon-7b5dbc96985c?gi=1449354985f1

@feditips when NPR posted this morning on Twitter to look for them on other social media accounts, Mastodon was not listed nor was post.

@feditips

My post from a short while ago:

Just going to copy-paste this here too:

What actual, credible evidence does anyone have that the account they're publicizing is *actually* #NPR

I see no green Verified shading on any URL

There is a dime-a-dozen :verified: icon, but anyone can put one of those up

Finally, their Joined and last posting dates:

JOINED: Apr 26, 2020

POSTED: Nov 12, 2020

I'm not buying it without further, credible evidence

Others may, if they choose

@feditips Look, Jimmy here will vouch for me.

@feditips I put in a request to Linktree a few days ago to allow putting the rel="me" tag in my profile there. They did not respond, but maybe if others also request it...?

@feditips @timkmak is newly active on Mastodon. he might have information or interest in this.

@feditips is fedified.com considered a trustworthy source?

@feditips When NPR on Twitter linked their other social media they didn't link a Mastodon account. Also, Tim Mak implied this morning there was no NPR account:

https://journa.host/@timkmak/110186656554186447

@feditips That's a strong argument that news outlets should run their own instances and verify their journalists. I just was trying to do the same thing you were.

@feditips

I couldn't disagree more.

As in the real world trusted third party verification and authentication is extremely important.

That's why you register businesses, that's why you get business licenses. That's why you join associations, etc.. etc..

Incremental validation is essential.

@feditips I think that's a feature, not a bug - if you don't trust the verification site, you shouldn't trust the verification, full stop.

@feditips
Maybe I'm confused, but having people use their own servers to verify themselves doesn't seem much different from a Blue Check.
Maybe try some kind of a distributed public key server?