Inside Twitter ‘blue tick’ fiasco as Elon Musk pledges to change icon for all verified accounts
ELON Musk has plans to introduce a new 'official' label for certain verified accounts.
On Tuesday, Twitter's early-stage products executive Esther Crawford announced that the company will soon provide official accounts with a 'label' when it launches its new Blue service.
"Accounts that will receive [the label] include government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers, and some public figures," Crawford tweeted.
“Not all previously verified accounts will get the ‘Official’ label and the label is not available for purchase.”
Crawford also confirmed that the revamped Twitter Blue subscription product, which will allow paid users to have their accounts verified with a blue checkmark, will not verify users’ identities with identification cards or materials.
Twitter Blue is Musk's new plan to offer a paid monthly subscription for $7.99 that adds a blue checkmark to users' accounts.
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"The new Twitter Blue does not include ID verification – it’s an opt-in, paid subscription that offers a blue checkmark and access to select features," Crawford said in a second tweet.
"We’ll continue to experiment with ways to differentiate between account types."
One feature included in the Blue service subscription includes the option to edit tweets after publishing them.
Blue Check(ed) Out
Musk vocalized his plans to charge for blue verification checks earlier this month, causing a stir among Twitter users.
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"Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit," Musk tweeted last week.
"Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late October, continued.
The billionaire also noted that this new change would give Twitter a revenue stream "to reward content creators."
Initially, Musk proposed charging verified users $20 a month to keep their blue checks, but this prompted a major backlash.
Among the users criticizing Musk's prospective plan was famed author Stephen King.
"$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I'm gone like Enron," King tweeted.
Musk replied: "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?"
In a later tweet, Musk confirmed that the change is happening, and it will cost $8 a month for users to stay verified.
User reactions
Despite the lower price point, Twitter users were still not happy with Musk's plan.
One user named Alex with the handle @TinySnekComics introduced the hashtag #ratverified as a way of speaking out against the change.
Alex tweeted: "Why would I pay $8 to get a blue check if I could put a rat next to my name for free???"
"I'm calling on everyone to join me in becoming #RatVerified," the tweet concluded.
Since going live, Alex's tweet has gone viral, garnering more than 1500,000 likes, thousands of retweets, and hundreds of comments.
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"Don't pay $8 a month for a blue check. You can get #RatVerified for free!" one user tweeted.
"I am now #RatVerified ("Ratified," if you will) which is better than normal verified because rats are awesome and it doesn't cost 8 dollars a month," a second user commented.