Twitter charges $8 (£7/month) for verified users who want a blue checkmark next to their name, signifying a verified account, according to Elon Musk. As part of changes after a $44 billion (£38 billion) takeover of the social media site, Mr. Musk said it was “essential to defeat spam and scam.”
A blue tick mark next to a username, which is usually reserved for public figures, is now free. People contend that the change will likely make it more difficult to locate dependable sources. However, Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, went on to say that premium customers would have precedence in replies and searches and also receive half the amount of advertising.
“Power to the people! “Blue for $8/month,” the billionaire tweeted, dismissing the old blue tick authentication mechanism as a “lords and peasants system.” However, Nu Wexler, the former head of global policy communications at Twitter, cautioned that charging for blue ticks would make it more difficult to identify false information.
“With disinformation being a problem that many platforms are dealing with, verification is one of the methods that journalists, academic researchers, and certain users use to filter out disinformation or low-quality content,” Mr Wexler explained on the BBC’s Today programme. Now, it is more difficult to sort through misinformation and get reliable information if blue checks are being offered as rent:
- Elon Musk spent $1 billion to purchase Twitter.
- What will Twitter do next?
- Twitter’s previous method of validating users for a blue tick involved a brief online application form and was reserved for those whose identities were likely to be impersonated, such as celebrities, politicians, and journalists.
The mechanism was put in place by the business in 2009, following a lawsuit accusing it of not doing enough to stop fake accounts. The Guardian reported that as of 2021, there were roughly 400,000 verified users on Twitter. However, Mr. Musk is still up against a significant obstacle as he attempts to turn around Twitter’s company, which hasn’t turned a profit in years. Even while some businesses have grown anxious about advertising on the site under his leadership, he has stated that he intends to lessen Twitter’s dependency on advertisements. General Motors, a competitor of Elon Musk’s Tesla electric car startup, announced last week that it would stop running ads on the website.
Meanwhile, some other prominent businesses have quietly suspended their advertising on the site while they await Mr. Musk’s revisions, according to a media buyer for a major advertising firm.
On Monday, IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising firms, urged its clients to pause Twitter advertisements for a week, citing a need for greater clarity on Twitter’s measures to ensure “trust and safety” on the network. Some of the world’s top corporations send IPG billions of pounds per year to manage their marketing budgets.
After initial reports said that the fee for blue tick rights could be $20 (£18) per month, the fee sparked scepticism.
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