With the new Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk, come new changes. The change in Twitter verification is the most recent example and it has taken the Twitter world by storm. Musk, who has a whopping following of over 100 million on Twitter, often goes viral for his controversies. During his latest stunt as the Director of Twitter, he announced that the blue tick on the micro-blogging platform will no longer be offered to users who have prominent and active accounts but to the Twitter Blue members who will pay a subscription of $8 per month.
Background: How did Musk acquire Twitter?
Elon Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter on October 27. This came after a months-long battle of unsolicited offers and withdrawals. After declining Twitter’s invitation to join the Board of Directors, Musk made an unsolicited $43 billion offer to buy the business. He says his intention is to improve the platform’s functionality, open source its algorithms, support the free expression of speech and stop spambot accounts. Twitter accepted the offer, but in July, Musk declared to end the contract claiming that Twitter broke terms by refusing to take down spambot accounts. Following this, Musk was sued by the business and the trial is still on. Meanwhile, Musk decided to acquire the company which was finalised on October 27 and he immediately assumed the role of CEO and owner.
The takeover has had mixed responses. While Musk’s vision is appreciated, there has been criticism over worries about an increase in false information and hate speech. Current and former employees of Twitter expressed suspicions over Musk’s motives. Musk also dismissed a number of senior officials of Twitter, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde.
Why the sudden change in mechanisms?
Addressing the blue tick mechanism as the “lords & peasants” system, Elon Musk Tweeted on November 1:
“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.”
This new change to the coveted verified badge is Musk’s effort to commercialise the platform without relying on advertisements. According to him, the pricing for the service will be modified by “country proportionate to purchasing power parity”. The blue tick users would also experience fewer advertisements while, “You will also get: Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam,” said Musk in a tweet about the benefits of the service, adding, “Ability to post long video & audio.”
However, in contrast to Musk's hyping of the change, Twitter users aren’t very pleased.
How are Twitter users reacting?
The blue tick which is reserved for well-known and genuine accounts is presently free. Critics claim that this change will make it more difficult to locate trustworthy accounts and sources. Most of the users are unwilling to pay for the blue tick or do not want to pay as much as $8 per month.
Author Neil Gaiman took to the site to tweet: “It's not the money or the "brand". I came here to Twitter because it was interesting and stayed because it was fun, stayed because the good bits outweighed the awful bits. If the nature of the community is changing I'm happy to lose the blue tick and let it go the way of MySpace.”
“If @verified by @Twitter will attract a price - who pays for the badges of accounts by “public servants”? Starting from 100s of central/state ministers, mps, mlas, governors, cops, bureaucrats. I hope- NOT the tax payer. #blueTick,” Tweeted the National Affairs Editor of India Today, Rahul Srivastava, expressing concerns over the monetising.
