Elon Musk Nixes 'Official' Label for Already Verified Twitter Accounts, Says Blue Check Will Be 'the Great Leveler' [Updated]

[BrownyQ]

One thing I'm noticing is that people who actually defend this change had ideological disagreements with Twitter users who had blue checkmarks previously, and I think that says everything.


"Equal footing" = non-paying members get deprioritized while spammers gain prominence in timelines and replies. Sounds real great.

Maybe that is part of their reason for defending the change. Wouldn't know, I am not them. Nor am I even a Twitter user, so your guess is as good as mine. 😂

The deprioritization of tweets from non-paying users is a pretty standard practice across most social media platforms. Now Twitter will adopt this practice. Hooray for equality?

Also, where did spammers get a free pass? I mean, unless the spammer is also shelling out $8 for the service, in which case more power to them. They're paying for that privilege.

Twitter is nothing more than a private social media platform, one in the midst of a radical upheaval in how its run and how the userbase will interact with one another. Sit back, enjoy the ride, and if you're someone who's getting too invested in these changes and how they'll affect you (not you specifically, sir or madam), then remember: it's just a website. There's likely grass right outside your door.

 

[StanleyOmar]

They always said there was a reason nobody else wanted to buy Twitter after kicking the tires and giving it a quick look under the hood.

 

[duervo]

This company is being run by a bunch of clowns.

 

[Makosuke]

Is it just me or Elon Musk has been seeking attention desperately?

I don't think he knows exactly what he is doing or what he wants. He seems so lost.

He's always desperately seeking attention (see: the kids trapped in the cave, and literally everything else he's done in public for the past decade or two), so that doesn't seem any different, it's just amplified when he's doing it via executive edicts at a service millions of people use and there's no delay at all between concept and execution.

As far as knowing what he's doing, I also don't think this is actually any different than usual. The difference is, in the past he was always flailing around and making grand hand-wavy gestures with physical engineering problems that he (probably) understood at least a little, and in any case could often be accomplished by throwing gobs of money and overworked, overpaid Silicon Valley youth at.

Sure, once in a while something would fail or never work right (self-driving) or be delayed by years, but mostly, if you spend enough money, you can build a thing that does more or less what you want it to.

Twitter, in contrast, is not a technical problem, it's a social engineering and marketing problem attached to an abstract service. Which Musk, being an incredibly rich, petty, narcissistic jerk, knows absolutely nothing about, and you can't just magically fix by throwing a billion dollars and a bunch of 20-something engineers at. Moreover, instead of announcing a thing, then engineers work on it for a long time, then it maybe ships, he announces a thing and it happens now.

Basically, he's always like this, but this time he doesn't have talented engineers to hide behind and there's no delay between edict and execution to hide the failures.

 

[Makosuke]

Can you imagine being one of those workers? Work on something with ridiculous deadlines for a week, the amount of sleepless nights to get something done and then OH NEVERMIND.

Having talked to people who work for other Musk-run companies, I can say with absolute confidence that I would never work for anything he owned. It sounds like an absolutely degrading nightmare, even when the products are cool. This sort of thing is par for the course when he's involved in business decisions, we just don't usually see it so publicly.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

This company is being run by a bunch of clowns.

Or just 1 big clown anyway

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Does Zuck ever do anything on his own, or is he going to just be a follower all his adult life. Good grief...

He tanked Meta's value all on his own!

 

[Karma*Police]

Many people never knew or forgot that Elon publicly, in court documents, did Not perform any due diligence beforehand. It was a $44B deal so who forgoes doing due diligence?

Also, he could've paid the $1B termination fee but his Ego wouldn't allow it, nor his followers who'd hecker him for eternity for doing so. But it would've saved him $43B!
Now he's stuck with a social media company which apparently he doesn't want and doesn't know what to do with.
He's lost users and advertisers and implemented the monthly Blue check to help with the inward cashflow of revenue to help pay for his acquisition of Twitter.

Elon Musk sold $3.95 billion worth of Tesla stock since completing his purchase of Twitter late last month yesterday, according to CNN. Tesla stock is currently down.
Guess he needed some cash to finance Twitter.

Twitter didn’t lose users. DAU shot up.

BTW, CNN is being dismantled by the new parent company because it lost 90% of viewers over the past couple of years due to its ideological propaganda, and the new CEO wants it to get back to reporting news… real journalism.

Hopefully, between Musk’s buyout of twitter and the new CEO at CNN, this is the beginning of the end of censorship by big tech and spread of propaganda by mainstream media.

 

[GlassFingers]

Can’t tell if this is parody or you’re just another unctuous Elon stan.

Not parody. And I don’t see how essentially name calling (“unctuous”) promotes a normal conversation… 🙄

 

[GlassFingers]

Some of us can't afford to be equal. Then again, some people are more equal than others.

That’s true… but at least paying $8 for the blue checkmark is an option now… before it was some designator of who is “importsnt

Because if everyone has a blue checkmark the blue checkmark means nothing.

well actually it would indicate that you are a real user. Because it wouldn’t be economically feasible to pay $8 for each of some huge bot army.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Not parody. And I don’t see how essentially name calling (“unctuous”) promotes a normal conversation… 🙄

If you don't join in on the echo chamber, you're "unctuous" and an "Elon stan". Isn't it wonderful how some people only want one train of thought from every living person?

 

[APlotdevice]

Yes, well, I’m guilty of making similar impulsive mistakes as I’m sure most people on MR are as well.

Umm, no. A 1 dollar pack of gum is an impulse purchase. Spending a quarter of your entire (apparent) net-worth is something a sensible human being would try to put some thought into first. Especially since this isn’t something he just went to the bank and withdrew cash for. Most of Elon Musk’s wealth is actually tied up in non-liquid assets. He had to get financing to actually make this purchase.

 

[msm859]

You don’t get to be the richest man in the world without knowing what you’re doing.

I agree with what he’s trying to do with the blue tick. There are far too many entitled people of Twitter that think they’re better than everyone else because they’ve been considered godlike enough to receive a blue tick. Making it a paid feature available to anyone puts it on a fair and level playing field.

The official label just makes a joke of the whole thing though. I don’t agree with that.

Being the "richest man in the world" does not mean you know what you are doing in "Everything". He would not know how to do brain surgery and he clearly does not have any special expertise in running "Twitter". His actions show a complete lack of planning or deliberative thought. It seems clear it was purely an ego/entitlement purchase. Virtually EVERYTHING he has done towards the purchase has shown gross incompetence starting at the purchase price.

 

[MrMojo1]

Twitter didn’t lose users. DAU shot up.

What is DAU?

Believe whatever you want and keep drinking the Elon kool aid if you want.

"According to data from Bot Sentinel, which tracks inauthentic behavior on the platform, around 877,000 accounts were deactivated, while an additional 497,000 were suspended between October 27 and November 1.."

Deactivated accounts is a sign of losing users. Whether or not those are fake or bot accounts is another issue but not mentioned in the article.
Already know some people who actually 'left' Twitter and closed their account.

www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2022/11/05/twitter-is-facing-a-great-exodus--can-the-company-remain-profitable-if-it-loses-its-power-users/?sh=56718b39212a

 

[ProfessionalFan]

What is DAU?

Daily Active Users

 

[The Game 161]

will still be easy to see who is officially though compared to via twitter blue. doesn't take long to check

 

[n0dragon]

I guess the next step is to charge those "government and commercial entities" 100k/year to maintain the "official" status.

Pathetic CEO.

 

[Karma*Police]

Umm, no. A 1 dollar pack of gum is an impulse purchase. Spending a quarter of your entire (apparent) net-worth is something a sensible human being would try to put some thought into first. Especially since this isn’t something he just went to the bank and withdrew cash for. Most of Elon Musk’s wealth is actually tied up in non-liquid assets. He had to get financing to actually make this purchase.

Poor analogy. 1/4 of moat people’s net worth is not the same as Elon’s. He could literally lose 99% of his net worth and still retire comfortably.

 

[Karma*Police]

Being the "richest man in the world" does not mean you know what you are doing in "Everything". He would not know how to do brain surgery and he clearly does not have any special expertise in running "Twitter". His actions show a complete lack of planning or deliberative thought. It seems clear it was purely an ego/entitlement purchase. Virtually EVERYTHING he has done towards the purchase has shown gross incompetence starting at the purchase price.

Never made the claim that he knows everything but that he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

His actions were based on the fact that freedom of speech was at stake which trumps $$.

And if you know his history, his motive wasn’t driven by $$. That’s why he took his entire fortune made from selling PayPal and invested it in a crazy EV idea that had slim to no chance of succeeding. Similar to how both Steves sold their most prized possessions to start Apple. Here’s to the crazy ones, right?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Never made the claim that he knows everything but that he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

No, he really doesn't. Rich people 'deserve the rights' that lesser people would never be given. Where I grew up, there was a guy that was 'obscenely rich', and he dragged people around by their noses. He spend flagrantly and always had something in the works. He strong-armed his partners and money people, and was always wheeling and dealing. But one of his projects hit a wall. People stared investigating him and his deals and corporate structures. What they found was amazing in its bravado. He had less than 5% of his own money into his projects. He would fund them, seek partners and funding, and bleed his money out of it and watch what happens. But he 'owned' people, until he didn't.

His one huge project started to sag, and investigators swarmed over it too and saw that crazy stuff he was doing, and he ended up losing it all and spending some serious time in prison.

Just because someone is 'rich' doesn't mean they are, or that they smart, or that they didn't get that way by ruthlessly screwing over every one they can find.

Reality TV was created to make people worship the insanely rich, and it has done just that. People worship the rich, they idolize them, they follow their every bodily function, and it's just not right. Musk is just as capable of driving Twitter into the ground as the next well educated but impulsive 'rich person'. NEVER give them the credit for being smart. They are still human, just like all the rest of the people on this rock.

 

[Santiago]

You don’t get to be the richest man in the world without knowing what you’re doing.

Empirical evidence very strongly suggests otherwise.

 

[MyOwnDrummer]

These Twitter threads are highly entertaining. Until you remember that the clowns on these threads are actually adults with jobs. Makes you wonder what kind of jobs they would be hired for, with the high level of cognitive dysfunction.

 

[svish]

Seems like plans are keeping on changing.

 

[mrmister]

Yes, Musk did dismantle the purpose of the verified check mark. Because the Twitter using community itself had dumbed down its meaning to the point that anyone with the right connections and the tiniest bit of clout could earn the mark and start using their blue badge as a megaphone for whatever ideology they wanted to echo into the blogosphere.

Oh. You're one of THOSE.

Back in the actual world, verification helps prevent real abuses and real problems.

 

[mrmister]

Nor am I even a Twitter user, so your guess is as good as mine.

Oh. Thanks for holding forth on things you admit you know nothing about!