The blue check mark on Twitter has long held a special status. Only certain accounts — usually those of identified public figures — are given the badge.
Things are changing now.
start Saturday, Many Twitter accounts will lose their check marks under changes made by social media company owner Elon Musk. Individuals must subscribe to Twitter’s Blue service, which costs $8 a month, to earn the badge.Businesses that are currently unverified will Must pay $1,000 per month If they want a gold checkmark to verify their account.
The move will help Twitter generate revenue by offering certain exclusive features to subscribers, and affect a range of users on the platform. Here’s something to know.
What does this change mean for Twitter users?
For those of you who primarily use Twitter to follow celebrities and news sites, this policy change will affect what you see and read on the service.
For example, you might see fewer Tweets from accounts you care about in your timeline, as individuals who choose not to pay for Twitter Blue will have less visibility on the site.
In Elon Musk’s twitter
- FTC investigation: Elon Musk tried to approach the FTC as the agency stepped up its investigation into Twitter’s privacy and data practices, but was rebuffed, documents show.
- Source code leaks: Part of the underlying computer code that runs Twitter has leaked online — a rare and major intellectual property exposure.
- value drop: Musk said Twitter is now worth about $20 billion, a sharp drop from the $44 billion he paid to buy the company in October, according to an email he sent to employees.
It may be more difficult for most users to discern real people from fake accounts. For example, if the check marks were removed from the accounts of celebrities who were unwilling to pay for Blue, it would be difficult to distinguish their accounts from impostors.
Only posts from paid accounts with blue checks will appear in Twitter’s “Recommended for you” tab, the default timeline of tweets the platform shows you based on your interests, Mr. Musk said. The only exception, He later said, There will be posts from unverified accounts you already follow, which will continue to appear in your timeline.
All of this means that it might become more difficult to spot posts from accounts that don’t have a blue checkmark. For example, if you follow a lot of news about sports, and an unverified account posts some sports-related news, you won’t see it in your timeline unless you already follow the account. In the past, you may have discovered this content simply because it went viral.
A caveat to these possible changes is that Mr. Musk is not known for always following through with his stated intentions. As a result, some of the checkmark policies may change as Twitter rolls out.
Will people start paying for checkmarks?
It all depends on whether the account holder gets enough value from the blue check mark to justify the payment.
Celebrities and institutions may choose not to pay because they already have a large following who will continue to see their posts.
The New York Times, which has nearly 55 million followers on Twitter, said Thursday it would not pay for verified badges for its institutional accounts, including @New York TimesThe New York Times also told its reporters that it would not reimburse Twitter Blue subscriptions except in rare cases for reporting.
But other types of Twitter users might choose to pay for a checkmark. These include small businesses that use Twitter to market their services and want their content to reach a wider audience. In this case, paying for verification is essentially an advertising expense.
Twitter will make some exceptions for which companies will keep their checkmarks without paying. In an internal document, the company said it would allow the 10,000 most-followed organizations and top 500 advertisers that have been verified to maintain their status.
What will happen to Twitter?
Among social media companies like Meta and Snap, Twitter is the smallest social network, and the company continues to shrink in size and relevance.
Musk has laid off most of Twitter’s workforce, reducing the company’s workforce to fewer than 2,000 from 7,500 when he took over in October. The site still has problems with bots posting spam and imposter accounts posing as public figures. Security issues, glitches, and bugs pile up. Some influencers and journalists are migrating to other platforms, including Mastodon, LinkedIn and Instagram.
