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On Thursday, the management of the Twitter platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk carried out its threat to withdraw the blue verification badge from any account whose owner does not pay for verification. What made the accounts of famous people from the world of sports, politics, art and money look like any ordinary account. The platform’s management also withdrew the labels “state media” and “government funded media” from the accounts of media organizations around the world.
did it Elon Musk And he carried out his threat. Celebrities and political figures such as Pope Francis, former US President Donald Trump, singer Beyoncé and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday lost the blue authentication mark on their faces. Twitter After the platform implemented its warning to withdraw this famous badge from any account whose owner does not pay for authentication.
And the shape of the social network began to change rapidly on Thursday, with the withdrawal of the blue marks that were granted years ago once the identity of the user was verified, according to certain conditions, including the fame of the account holder.
Thus, the blue tick disappeared from the accounts of personalities such as Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bill Gates or Lady Gaga, as well as from the accounts of many journalists, university professors and activists, including even Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.
On the political side, the blue verification mark was withdrawn from the accounts of many officials, but some of them got the gray verification mark intended for government accounts or some organizations. This is the case of Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The blue tick now refers to users who pay $8 a month to get this badge and other benefits (increased account visibility, tech perks, less ads), like Donald Trump Jr. or the Dalai Lama.
Marquis Brownlee, a content creator with six million followers, tweeted, “I know I’m going to get criticized for keeping the blue tick, but that’s okay, I need to edit tweets.”
Others expressed their surprise at this step, such as the famous writer Stephen King, who has seven million followers.
Withdraw the definition of state media
Another controversial change took place on Twitter, as the “state media” and “government-funded media” signs were withdrawn on Friday from the accounts of media organizations around the world, such as the American Public Broadcasting Corporation (NPR), which recently stopped its activity on Twitter in protest. to affix this label to her account.
And Twitter explains on its “Help Center” page: “State-funded media organizations that enjoy editorial independence, such as BBC (baby C) in the UK or NPR (NPR) in the United States, for example, as state media.”
The “Twitter Verified” page, the account for paid subscriptions to the “Twitter Blue” service, had warned on Wednesday that the social network would withdraw the next day the blue authentication marks that its owners had obtained before Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter at the end of October.
Revenue decline
The billionaire had to delay the launch of Twitter Blue several times, causing confusion and chaos on the network. And in November, Musk affirmed his desire to “give more power to the people” and to overthrow “the current system of landlords and villagers, between those who have the blue tick and those who do not.”
“Messages from verified accounts will be published by default,” he said, while tweets belonging to people who did not pay for verification will be treated like spam (spam) in mailboxes, a file that “can be viewed in spite of everything.”
Subscribing, according to Mask, would also contribute to addressing fake or automated accounts, and diversifying incomes, while many brands have moved away from the platform.
For her part, Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with “Insider Intelligence” said last week that brands avoid spending on a platform that is “dominated by chaos, random changes and uncertainty.”
This studies company expected that Twitter revenues would decline 28% this year, while Twitter Blue subscriptions may not make up for lost revenue, according to the analyst.
She indicated that “the blue mark is no longer a guarantee of credibility,” since anyone can obtain it once they pay for it.
France 24/AFP
