An official Blue Check mark on your profile comes with a lot of built-in credibility, which is why people with verified accounts are taken a bit more seriously than average users. Until now, this status was locked behind an arbitrary list of profile and community engagement requirements, making it hard to understand what made someone eligible for the same.
All anyone knows is that they judge your value based on if your account is authentic, notable, and active. This requires multiple layers of personal identification, social validation, news coverage, and other parasocial criteria to be fulfilled before you are considered a person of worth. Now, it seems like all that will be taken away and replaced with a straightforward monthly payment plan that will cost you $19.99.
This way, users can simply pay to get their activity validated. We are sure there will still be a minimum threshold before you can avail of this offer, but the fact that you may actually get to do it puts the whole system under a lot of scrutiny. Some people are already arguing that this will dilute the credibility of the platform itself and the people who have worked hard to gain and maintain their social status.
Another troubling part of this is that people who don't pay for this privilege may end up even losing it. According to rumours, Twitter might take away your Blue Checkmark if you don't go along with their plan to make the platform more profitable. Thus, marking the first major change in the way that social media, in general, functions.
Elon Musk is also working on other potential changes, such as changing the default interface of a new visitor from the login screen to the trending page. This way, they can increase the platform's engagement even before they convert the traffic into active users with their own handles.
We are sure even more changes will be leaked or announced in the coming weeks as the social media giant tries to course correct towards the new direction that its billionaire owner decides to embark on. So, stay tuned as we bring you all the updates about this much-awaited takeover and the fallout thereafter.
