As we all know, it’s the end for the blue check.
Twitter will begin to remove check marks from verified Twitter users who refuse pay for its subscription service. This is one of the most significant changes to Twitter’s core product since Elon Musk purchased it.
Musk stated that the change will occur on Saturday and it is expected to eliminate the only public indicator of legitimacy for an account. Many security experts aren’t happy with this change.
Jessica Brandt, policy director at the Brookings Institution’s emerging technology and artificial intelligence initiative, said that “it’s an information integrity disaster.” “Blue check marks were intended as indicators of information quality. Putting them up for sale is an easy way to destroy that functionality.”
As Musk calls them, legacy verified accounts have a blue checkmark next to their names. The check mark, which was introduced by Twitter in 2009, was a way for it to confirm that celebrity accounts, journalists and brands were not being managed by impersonators. The company has struggled with the perception of some users that a blue check was an endorsement, and that users who weren’t verified were less valuable.
The check mark became the subject of scrutiny over the years. How Twitter gave them out. Others started to see the check mark as an elite symbol . As a way of mocking perceived liberals, some conservative used the term “blue-check”.
Musk took a populist approach to the issue, calling the verification system one “lords and peasants.” Twitter introduced a program in November where users who subscribe to the site for a monthly fee can display a blue check-mark of their own. While legacy verified accounts will be able to keep their checks if they start paying, many celebrities and influencers aren’t happy with the idea of having to pay for a service that they have used for years for free.
Twitter will allow organizations to pay for verification they can then pass on their employees as part of the new system. Pricing starts at $1,000 per month. The New York Times reported that many top advertisers and largest company accounts will not have to pay.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request to comment.
Subscribers who pay a subscription get additional benefits that ensure their tweets are visible by other users. These include priority in searches and appearing higher in replies than other users. Musk also stated that only verified users will be included in Twitter’s “For You”, a stream that recommends tweets and is the default for many users.
Musk indicated that subscription services are necessary to keep the company afloat. The company was purchased by Musk for $44 million last fiscal year. reportedly stated last week in an email to employees that the company’s current value is about $20 billion. NBC News has not confirmed this reporting.
Twitter’s November launch of a payment system allowed users to purchase accounts. This was disastrous. Paid users created fake profiles in order to impersonate companies. One paid user imitated Eli Lily, claiming that insulin was “free now.” This caused the stock price of the drugmaker to fall. Researchers found instances in which Russian propaganda accounts paid for blue checkmarks.
Twitter has not released numbers about how many users paid for the service. However, there are some indications that they aren’t. Travis Brown, a former Twitter employee and programmer, tracks activities on the site using a grant from Germany’s nonprofit Open Knowledge Foundation. He has also written programming code to track accounts that have been paid. He said that he had found less than 8,000 legacy accounts who have paid for the service as of Sunday.
It seems that some of the most prominent and well-known users on the platform aren’t going to sign up. This includes , the rapper Ice T who tweeted recently: “F— this checkmark.”
