Elon Musk Ruined Twitter Verification By Making It Cheap and Nonexclusive
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Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and space traveler, recently acquired the Twitter platform for 44 billion dollars. This was not without controversy. Musk attempted to rescind his offer, but Twitter sued him, basically forcing his hand and making him buy the platform.
Musk took over at the end of October and immediately got revenge by firing almost half of the company’s employees. Now, Musk is trying to rehire some of these employees after realizing he needs them.
I hope they don’t come back.
Musk claims that part of the reason he bought Twitter was so there could be free speech. Clearly, this is his idea of free speech:
Instances of the N-word on Twitter increased by almost 500% in a 12-hour period over the previous average…
Many people, especially Black and POC, have decided to leave Twitter or are contemplating it. Why? Because Musk has already turned Twitter into a more hateful and hostile environment.
Musk has also decided to sell Twitter blue checks, or verification badges, for a paltry 8 dollars a month. This is going to inevitably make Twitter a breeding ground for fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.
The blue check used to serve two purposes: it verified the person tweeting was who they said they were (like if I put up a profile picture of Oprah and called myself that, you would know I wasn’t really Oprah because I wouldn’t have a blue check) and 2. it let you know if a person tweeting was an expert in their field. This means that a person whose tweeting the news, politics, or medical information pertaining to COVID is a real expert if they have a blue check. If not, take it with a grain of salt.
In a way, the blue check was a status symbol. It meant that you were a notable person, or expert in your field, and Twitter verified this by items including your official website, government-issued identification, Wikipedia page, articles about you from verified news organizations, or other industry specific references like an IMDB page. Categories included individuals in government, candidates for office, news organizations, individuals in news & journalists, companies, brands, &organizations, entertainment…
