Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, both the company itself and the social network with millions of users have become a hive of contradictory news, quick and apparently meaningless decision-making, and a state of general confusion that this Wednesday saw a new chapter. . This time, as reported by media such as Mashable and The Guardian and as any tweeter who visited said social network on November 9 could verify, the chaos was unleashed by Twitter’s new blue/gray badge.
The blue tick mess, so to speak, began shortly after the CEO of Tesla entered the Twitter offices with a sink in his hands. The new owner of the company, for which he has paid more than 40,000 million dollars, does not like the current verification system and announced that he was going to change it. His initial plan, or so he said, was that anyone who wanted to keep ‘wearing’ the blue tick should pay $20 a month for it. There were complaints, many, and then he decided to apply a reduction to the monthly payment up to 8 dollars. It was of little use, because the protests have continued.
The plan now, as reported, is that anyone can buy verification without anyone actually verifying their identity. An idea that not only has not been liked, but has generated numerous analyzes on the effects that the fact of being able to buy the blue tick can have on the spread of false news or cases of identity theft. Numerous examples have been produced on this last point. Even Elon Musk himself has seen these days how some verified personalities trolled him by changing his name on his profile usurping his personality showing how easy he would be now.
The problem with the purchase of the blue tick, until now free and subject to a verification process for granting it, has made Musk give his idea of charging for it one more turn. The solution, with which he was experimenting throughout Wednesday, was to place a new gray icon accompanied by the word ‘official’. But it didn’t last long. A few hours after becoming visible, they removed it. Musk responded to the comment of one of the users to whom he appeared and disappeared with a forceful: “I just killed him.”
As Mashable reports, Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter, explained what the plan was on Tuesday. Although she has changed at some points, her explanation is still valid to get a little idea of chaos. “A lot of people have asked how you’ll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue, subscribers with blue checkmarks, and accounts verified as official, which is why we’re introducing the ‘Official’ tag to select accounts when we launch,” she furthered.
How would it be put into practice? Well, according to Crawford, “not all pre-verified accounts will get the ‘Official’ tag and the tag is not available for purchase. The accounts that will receive it include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers, and some public figures.”
In her explanation, this Twitter worker added that “the new Twitter Blue does not include identity verification: it is an optional paid subscription that offers a blue verification mark and access to selected functions. We will continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types.” On Wednesday, the online and open experiments arrived and with them the general chaos and confusion.
Once the elections in the United States are over, for which the entry into force of the blue tick payment plan was delayed, it should already be available. After a Wednesday of testing and bewilderment, as of today, Thursday, November 10, and, as reported by The Guardian citing a company executive, the accounts verified with the previous blue tick of governments, companies, media outlets and public figures should have seen how the icon has changed to one that represents that it is ‘official’.
If a user clicks on it, they will see a message that tells them the following: “This account is verified due to notoriety in the government, news, entertainment or other designated category.” This icon, unlike the blue payment verification tick, cannot be purchased and it is not a circle but a geometric figure that may resemble the drawing of a flower.