Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has announced that Saturday is the deadline for users to pay for a premium subscription or lose their blue check marks. The marks are used to verify the identity of users on the social media platform, and have been given to celebrities, journalists and other high-profile figures for free. However, Musk has argued that the marks have become a corrupt status symbol, and has been pushing for more people to pay for a premium subscription. The move has been met with resistance from some users, including 92-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner.
Musk bought Twitter for $44bn in October, and has been trying to boost the platform’s revenue by encouraging more people to pay for a premium subscription. However, he has also argued that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved status symbol for elite personalities and news reporters. The marks were originally introduced around 14 years ago as a way of verifying politicians, activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe. They were intended as an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts that are impersonating people.
Some users have complained that they are being asked to pay for something that was previously given to them for free. Actress Monica Lewinsky tweeted a screenshot of all the people impersonating her, including at least one who appears to have paid for a blue check mark. She asked, “what universe is this fair to people who can suffer consequences for being impersonated? a lie travels half way around the world before truth even gets out the door.” Shatner also complained about the changes, tweeting “I’ve been here for 15 years giving my (clock emoji) & witty thoughts all for bupkis. Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free?”
Musk has responded to the complaints by arguing that there should not be a different standard for celebrities. “It’s more about treating everyone equally,” he tweeted. For now, those who still have the blue check but apparently haven’t paid the premium fee have messages appended to their profile saying it is a “legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.”
However, open government advocate Alex Howard has warned that the bigger concern is that impersonators could more easily spread rumours and conspiracies that could move markets or harm democracies around the world. “The reason verification exists on this platform was not simply to designate people as notable or authorities, but to prevent impersonation,” Howard said.
Musk’s first product move after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 monthly. However, the service was quickly inundated by impostor accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service days after its launch. The relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iPhone and iPad users. Subscribers are supposed to see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently.