Ever since Twitter was acquired by Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, a few things have been consistent, there is verification, free speech, and well, fanboys fanboying. Immediately Elon bought Twitter, the billionaire admitted he had overpaid for the platform and despite his goal to make the microblogging site a free speech platform, he had to make his money back: Cue the $8 a month for verification.
The Good
According to one Sriram Krishnan, the new verification system will address impersonation, this is contrary to what everyone argues with many Tweeps arguing that the old verification solved impersonation while the new one just won’t. Sriram argues that using a CC/mobile checkout dramatically increases friction. And everyone caught impersonating will lose their money.
“There are lots of people who should be verified ( and often impersonated) and aren’t. And vice versa. The current path on any social network is opaque and easily gamed. $8 gives a consistent path for anyone regardless of their level of notability ( which is subjective).” He notes.
I quite agree, furthermore, right now it is easy to impersonate and scam people using the checkmark, the new $8 model will give more people the blue checkmark making it less valuable.
“Verification on social media was originally meant to solve for “this person is who they say they are”. It was NOT meant to say “This person is more important or notable”. The new model solves this.
The Bad
Verification isn’t a status symbol, it just proves you are the real you. However, over the years, this has changed with people with the blue checkmark pedestalized and their opinions put above all others, Musk knows this and is therefore not selling verification but the status symbol in disguise.
This is why Musk’s Twitter blue will also give verified users more perks than ever before, now, their replies to Tweets will be amplified and put above all others. Getting verified will also mean you get prioritized everywhere on the platform, even on Twitter search meaning if you don’t have that checkmark you are not going to be able to exercise that free speech they are preaching about.
The Ugly
It’s all about the money. “So why does it have to be $8 for verification, why not $1 based on credit card + id?” A disgruntled user asks. Quite honestly $96 a year to prove you are who you are is just stupid. But again, the big Musk doesn’t care, he has to make his money back, and well, if you don’t agree with him he’s gonna cook up some rules to suspend you from the app. We are not even kidding.
Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.
This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
Will the New Verification Model Happen?
Musk is hell-bent on making his money back, he is in everyone’s replies saying they will pay and must pay, he has even included the changes on Twitter’s fine print, however, the negative pushback from people has led to the model being delayed till after the United States Midterms.
This means the people still have a little bit of power. Whether it is enough? we will have to wait and see.
Anyways would you pay for verification on the Twitters? let us know on our Socials
