Elon Musk wants to change a lot on Twitter. Among the plans he announced is a new $8 subscription that will give you easy access to the network’s famous blue icon. social. Twitter’s new owner seems to be doing version network fee social a priority. Which is ok as it is version paying if it had more followers would allow Twitter to be less dependent on ads and therefore advertisers. The problem is that if the blue icon (which makes office verification) becomes easily accessible to paying Twitter followers, on it will be difficult to distinguish between ordinary user accounts and the official accounts of governments, companies, celebrities, etc. These badges are indeed an effective way to combat usurpation of rights on social networks, and not only on Twitter.
Gray icon does not work
The solution drawn by Elon Musk’s team: a new “official” badge. Basically, since the blue icon becomes normal, the network social wanted to propose another that would certify the “official” accounts of governments, companies, the media, and other public figures.
A lot of of people asked about how you will be able to distinguish @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official so we add an “Official” label to select accounts at startup. peak.twitter.com/0p2Ae5nWpO — Esther Crawford ✨ (@esthercrawford) November 8, 2022
Usually these changes are implemented gradually. But not online social from Elon Musk. Yesterday, after the announcement of the gray icon, which should office certification for “official” accounts, this one began to appear on some accounts. But it seems like it only lasted a few hours. Indeed, the gray icon soon disappeared. And today, it seems that Twitter has completely abandoned the project. According to Gizmodo, during a Space Twitter chat, Musk commented on the debacle, admitting it was a bad idea. The problem, according to him, in addition to the fact that it was far from aesthetically pleasing, was also that a new system was being created with two classes of users. Musk also confirmed that he “killed” that gray icon, in response to a netizen’s post.
I just killed him — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
In any case, Elon Musk suggests his method, although this may cause confusion among users. “Please note that Twitter will be doing a lot of stupid things in the coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn’t work.on in a recent post. “Twitter products no longer have sacred cows. Elon is willing to try many things – many will fail, some will succeed. The goal is to find the right combination of successful changes to ensure the long-term health and growth of the company,” said Esther Crawford, one of the leaders of the network. social.
Elon Musk is also interested in paying
Note that in addition to developing a new paid subscription, Twitter also wants to deal with payment services. According to TechCrunch, during son Twitter Space, Musk suggested that he later possible send money via net social. And, obviously, this is very serious. Indeed, Twitter has already filed the necessary paperwork with the US authorities to launch this payment functionality. It should be remembered that the payment will bring Twitter closer to Elon Musk’s long-term vision, which is to create the equivalent of WeChat (a Chinese messaging app that includes many other features) for Western countries.