Elon Musk doesn’t understand what Twitter’s verification system is, which is proving to be a problem since he is now in charge of Twitter. How do I know he doesn’t understand what a blue check means? Well, he tweeted out his plan for the new verification system and seems to think that the verification is a “lords & peasants system” over who has or doesn’t have the checkmark.
So, Elon Musk’s new verification plan for Twitter is, well, a disaster. The point of being “verified” wasn’t to hold some overreaching power over the “peasants” on Twitter; it was to prove that you are who you say you are. As someone who is often mocked and bullied because I write about *checks notes* superheroes, I got the verification so that if someone decided to make a fake account about me, you’d know who was who.
Currently, his big plan is to charge everyone money for verification with a monthly subscription, with no real attention (that we know of) paid to the aspect of making sure a verified account is who they say they are. What this all resulted in was a lot of confusion about how this system “verifies” anything, when all it does is … ask you to pay for some features. But it also left those who do have a blue checkmark making fun of the fact that we are, apparently, lords.
The thing is: This new plan is making the blue checks a lords and peasants situation.
And, honestly, the checkmark did nothing other than let people know that I am who I say I am, but I guess Musk thinks it means we’re better?
Paying for a checkmark makes you a lord
It is a frustrating situation for a lot of reasons. One, if you complain, they label you as whining. Two, if you need to pay for it out of your own Twitter safety, then others will mock you for doing so. And more than that, all this does is just … make the “free speech” that Musk claims to care about so much get messy because Twitter Blue will highlight those who pay for it versus those who don’t.
Musk went on to clarify that there would be a label for public figures, but it doesn’t really make sense anyway because his verification process doesn’t say anything about showing an ID or proving anything. The current verification process is a lot of proving that your work is known enough to get you the check in the first place, and it’s a big thing as a whole.
So … making someone pay for a check without implementing anything that proves the account is the person that they say (or the business, for that matter) is just going to cause more fake accounts and more bots that result in chaos for no reason other than maybe Elon Musk misunderstands the point of verification in the first place.
(featured image: HBO)
