Twitter had made a big pomp and show about taking away the legacy verification checkmark or ‘blue tick’ from users of the platform for various ‘reasons’. At one point owner Elon Musk believed it to be a form of ‘elitism’ and thought it went against free speech and equality.
So a big deal was made out of how those legacy verification marks would soon be taken away and if anyone wanted the iconic ‘blue tick’ back they’d now have to buy the Twitter Blue subscription instead.
Well, this actually snowballed into several legacy verified people just not opting to do so, willing to lose their checkmark and eventually Musk himself first paying for a few people’s subscriptions out of his pocket and then returning the tick back to several of the celebs.
Elon Musk Returns The Blue Tick
On 20th April, Twitter finally instated the new system and took away the blue checkmarks of the legacy verified users. So now if they wanted their checkmarks back they’d have to buy the $8 Twitter Blue subscription just like everyone else.
It is believed that Musk thought the fear of losing the blue tick would make all these high profiled people buy the subscription which would then increase the value of the subscription and incentivise the common users to also buy it.
This would eventually mean a lot of money for Twitter. But the opposite ended up happening when many celebrities and verified people opted not to buy and were happy with losing their blue tick.
In a hilarious turn of events Musk himself admitted though that he was personally paying for the Twitter Blue subscription of a few people.
In a reply to a tweet, Musk stated “Just Shatner, LeBron and King,” when alleged that he was paying for the Twitter Blue subscription of some celebrities.
Stephen King later on tweeted that “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t” to which, Musk replied, “You’re welcome namaste”.
Lebron James has also been very vocal that he won’t be paying anything for a Twitter Blue subscription.
After some time not just these celebs but many others saw that their blue tick had been reinstated and reports claimed that almost all users having over 1 million followers had automatically gotten the blue tick.
The kicker here though was that even though many were not Twitter Blue subscribers, their blue tick when clicked on shows them being one. On their profile, it’s written that “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”
Read More: BBC Gets Labeled As Government Funded By Twitter
The Twitter Blue Fiasco
The ‘blue tick fee’ had been a point of contention since last year October when even Stephen King posted “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
To this Musk replied “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” He also added that “I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.”
Many experts also fail to understand what true value Twitter Blue would even bring that those formerly legacy verified would want to switch over.
Things like an edit tweet option, bookmarks folders, fewer ads and bold or italicizing of tweets are hardly any premium features that would make those people actually want to pay even an $8 fee.
Some compared that even the much more beneficial YouTube Premium subscription that has bigger and better features actually warranting the fee being asked is not used by the majority of the users.
As per Statista, in 2020 it was found that there are just around “20 million paying users subscribing to its premium services in the United States” and worldwide reached 50 million subscribers in 2021. But in comparison with its actual user base being 2.5 billion monthly this number makes hardly a dent.
Twitter, on the other hand, is hardly offering any real value and furthermore, the blue tick mark is only becoming a sign of being unpopular on the Twitter-sphere now. The constant changes Twitter is seeing and Musk’s volatile behaviour have all made the Twitter Blue subscription a sign of siding with his wrong antics and giving in.
Many celebrities now want to be without the blue tick mark as not only a sign of protest but also to show their ‘coolness’.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Business Today, India Today, Livemint
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Elon Musk Blue Ticks, Elon Musk, Blue Ticks, Elon Musk twitter blue, twitter blue, twitter blue subscription, Elon Musk twitter blue subscription
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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