Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Twitter Blue Verified, the new paid way to get the verification checkmark, is having its relaunch delayed until November 29. The system had arrived on November 7 after employees were told they would be fired if they did not meet the deadline. Since then, Twitter has seen the system abused with users creating fake “verified” accounts.
On November 15, 2022, Twitter CEO Elon Musk took to his recently purchased social media platform to inform users that Blue Verified will have its relaunch delayed until November 29 in a bit to “make sure that it is rock solid”.
Users with a Twitter Blue $8/month subscription have been able to receive Twitter’s blue checkmark, a symbol that previously meant an account was who it purported to be. What followed were users creating accounts to parody other users, paying for the verification checkmark, and then promptly getting banned. Chief among these bans were users who made Elon Musk parody accounts.
The problem here was that Twitter users had come to recognize the blue checkmark as proof of identification. An account with the checkmark had previously needed to go through various checks and balances before it could receive the coveted icon.
Now, the blue checkmark is effectively meaningless as a way of easily assessing whether an account is verified or has simply paid for verification. Only when a user visits a profile and clicks the blue checkmark does the platform state whether the icon has been paid for or whether it is verified because it’s a notable entity.
Further muddying these waters is the introduction of a new “Official” label attached to accounts. This label basically does what Twitter Verified did.
It’s evident with this delay to Twitter Blue Verified that Elon Musk isn’t happy with how the system is currently working. Hopefully the delay will see improvements to how this new subscription service and features operates.
The road to get to this point has felt long, despite the fact Musk has only owned the platform for a matter of weeks. During this time, Musk has fired former Twitter CEO, CFO, and the policy chief, he also fired thousands of employees with more quitting since he bought the company.
In what appears like a bid to cover some of his debt, Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion of Tesla (TSLA) stock and SpaceX (Musk’s other company) has bought ad space on Twitter. It remains to be seen whether these changes to Twitter Blue Verified are enough to put a dent into the $44 billion purchase price of Twitter. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the matter.