To highlight its Twitter Blue subscription, Twitter has revealed plans to remove the verification symbol (the blue tick) from legacy accounts.
Twitter was used to verify users after they met specific criteria from various backgrounds. Although some have even referred to the process as biassed, it was occasionally opaque. The procedure is now straightforward and entails signing up for a monthly Twitter Blue subscription, which ensures the verification badge and a few other cool features.
Some individuals who obtained the badge using the previous, arduous approach seem dissatisfied and have opted not to pay $8 (KSh 800)because of the subscription. Why? Because Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, declared that to maintain the Blue badge after April 1 all users will need to pay for Blue.
LeBron James (52 million followers), the highest-paid NBA player of all time, is among the well-known figures who have publicly criticised Musk’s new policy. In a tweet, he wrote: “Welp guess my blue check mark will be gone soon since if you know me, I ain’t paying the 5.”
William Shatner, a Canadian actor with 2.5 million followers who is well-known for his work in the Star Trek series, declined to pay Twitter Blue to keep the verified badge. He said, “Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free? What is this – the Columbia Records & Tapes Club?”
The US White House has reportedly declined to pay for the certified badge as well, according to Axios. Rob Flaherty, the director of digital strategy at the White House, stated in an email that Twitter Blue does not offer person-level verification as a service. “Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user,” he added. However, profiles of government officials will likely bear a grey badge to help others spot “state” accounts.
Several foreign news organisations, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Vox, and BuzzFeed, published comments announcing that they will not be paying for Twitter Blue. Additionally refusing to pay, The New York Times’ emblem was taken down from its profile by the platform.
Nathan Hubbard, a former employee of Twitter who quit in 2016, said Musk’s new plan to promote Twitter Blue by doing rid of verification badges is “risky.” He asserts that “tweets from high-profile people/organizations” are responsible for the majority of Twitter engagement.
His tweet reads. “Now, surely there are verified users today who don’t deserve it. They craved the status symbol and found a way to worm their way in. The percentage is low, and the impact on the platform is negligible. Any designation like this is by definition subject to human judgement.”
Musk has frequently stated that he wants all users to feel equal to one another. He thinks that paying for a feature that guarantees a status symbol fosters equality.
