Uh oh, people can now buy the ‘verified’ mark on Twitter.
Elon Musk announced on his Twitter account that ‘blue-checked’ Twitter accounts will be charged per month with added ‘privileges’ to verified accounts.
The multi-billionaire entrepreneur said that this feature will give Twitter a revenue stream which will then give the social media platform the ability to reward content creators, which is odd because this means they have to pay Twitter for them to be paid.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
But for those who will avail this ‘product’ they will have the special privileges to be prioritized in replies, mentions and search, which according to musk, essential to defeat spam/scam. For content creators, this also gives them the feature to upload longer video and audio content. And they would see half as many ads
The price however is not fixed, because in a following tweet in the thread, he said that the price will be adjusted based on the buying power of the country.
Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
This is not Twitter’s first paid feature, as the social media company has also launched Twitter Blue which aims to enhance a user’s experience with the platform. Some features of this service is, editing a tweet, changing the color of the app, Bookmark Folders and so on. But it is only offered to limited countries.
In their report, the Washington Post has a source who said that “Twitter Blue would be combined with the verification process and some of its existing features may be cut.
This announcement, obviously, opened up a public discourse about whether the verification can really be ‘sold’.
But before Elon’s tweet, Jason Calcanis, a long time associate of Musk tweeted a poll asking his Twitter users how much would they pay to be verified and get a blue checkmark on the app. And as of writing, 81.6% of voters said that they wouldn’t pay for a check mark on their account.
How much would you pay to be verified & get a blue check mark on Twitter?
— @jason (@Jason) October 31, 2022
Twitter users voiced out their opinions by questioning why people would pay for that.
I can’t believe people would actually pay for that https://t.co/4qmAGi0MCY
— ||🌸🍭||~Princess Lilly~||🍰🛍️|| (@LillyLiliaceae) November 1, 2022
Would you all kindly vote “Wouldn’t Pay”? https://t.co/yeD7dvao64 pic.twitter.com/XN1OZhBFcw
— Dave Murdock https://mastodon.online/@davemurdock (@davemurdock) October 31, 2022
https://twitter.com/hermitdad17/status/1587125870233374721
This sentiment also extends to the said tweet of Elon, users are now concerned that this will counter the real function of ‘verified’ accounts.
Elon, this negates the whole idea behind the blue checkmark, which verifies that an account is official or legitimate. Users can already pay $4.99/month to get the benefits of Twitter Blue — this would simply be “Enhanced Twitter Blue” for $8. That’s fine, if that’s your intent.
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) November 1, 2022
What happens when a random user pays $8 and changes his Display Name to Elon Musk, using your same profile pic and starts tweeting like he's you?
Verified checkmarks exists so people know they follow the real person.
— elrubius (@Rubiu5) November 1, 2022
So – the way to do away with the “lords & peasants” system is to [checks notes] elevate the tweets and replies of those able to afford to pay $8 a month for this platform Vs those who cannot?
And you don’t see the hypocrisy here? 🤔
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) November 1, 2022
An $8 status symbol? Are you kidding me? Anyway, it was never a status symbol to me. It verifies my account my official author account because there are a bunch of other Jennifer Greenberg’s on here. Like a notary stamp. It has nothing to do with status, but verification.
— Jennifer Greenberg 🕊️ (@JennMGreenberg) November 2, 2022
Users argue about this effect on the legitimacy of the users. As it is a common trend on the internet to impersonate people who have clout to spread misinformation or any other maligned purposes.
However, Elon counters by saying that Public figures have a secondary tag.
There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
Which means that the blue check mark will not be a mark of ‘verified’ users but a tool for people to elevate their tweet and speech.
This is a concern that’s also been voiced out by Filipino Journalists Mara Cepeda and Lian Buan, stating on Twitter that fake news peddlers and troll farms can easily pay the verification fee and their replies and tweets will be elevated.
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