So, it turns out Elon Musk was in fact listening when everyone from users to journalists pointed out the glaring flaw in his plan to allow anyone willing to pay a verification mark. The Twitter Blue subscription service for $8 a month originally was created to make Twitter money and meant that you would receive a verification mark – regardless of the stature of who was behind the account. This means fan accounts can pose as the real thing, imposters can pose as politicians and world leaders, and brand accounts would be pointless.
But Musk has solved this, with yet another verification marker. Only the real deal users would have a grey checkmark, revealed on the eve of the launch of the $8 verification process (today, 9th November).
As Social Media Today put it: “So it’s exactly like the blue checkmark, but only for those that Twitter’s new management deems worthy of this ‘official’ recognition, which, thus far, will include ’government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures’. In other words: not journalists.”
Was this prompted by a mass trolling of Twitter users very succinctly making their point by changing their name to “Elon Musk” and posting the most un-PC and ridiculous opinions? Perhaps. Musk himself promptly suspended as many of these accounts as he could, including high-profile internet names like H3H3 and Kathy Griffin, and yet free speech on Twitter means you can’t face consequences for what you say?
At least now you’ll know that if Elon Musk actually says something absurd and un-PC, the grey checkmark means it was definitely him.
