‘People First’? Elon’s Decision to Charge $8 Verification Fee Sounds Otherwise

If not for the price, for the very intention of the move, the $8 verification fee is under scrutiny

Elon Musk has finally scaled down the blue tick price from $20 to $8 after facing sharp criticism from Stephen King, a well-noted writer. Does the price matter at all? If not for the price, for the very intention of the move, the $8 verification fee is under deep scrutiny. People are visibly baffled by the way he could compare a platform used for articulating free speech – though supposedly – to a lord-peasant system. Posting his thoughts on a Twitter thread, he mentioned why and how the $8 verification fee would benefit users in more than one way. "Twitter's current lords & peasants' system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month", he Tweeted.

Seemingly in an attempt to iron out public anger, he announced a few other features for blue tick holders like preference in mentions and search, lesser ads, and the ability to post long-form videos which Twitter currently restricts to 140 secs. According to anonymous reports, Twitter is planning to combine the verification process, delete a few other existing features, and name the verified version 'Twitter Blue'.  'Now this!' is the vibe Twitter got from a very large number of hardcore Tweeting maniacs who swear by their tweeting antics. Apparently, they are sulking over how paid users might get precedence in Tweets and mentions. The verification system in the older regime required users to have long and identifiable participation over the years creating a blue tick community having a variety of check-marked Twitter users with small and large followings, and was primarily meant for users to identify parody accounts. Irrespective of the uproar, Elon Musk, now the 'Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator' is adamant about going ahead with the plan. "To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8", he Tweeted. In fact, this is not a new feature, but an old experiment, which bought only mixed results to Twitter under its former management.

Jason Calacanis, a close friend of Elon Musk, earlier when held a poll on whether Twitter users would pay for 'Blue Tick' status, most of them voted "wouldn't pay". Seems Musk has his own reasons to implement nevertheless. Replying to Stephen King's tweet he said "We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?", adding "I will explain the rationale in the longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls." On April 25^th, announcing the binding deal to buy Twitter, he said he wants to make Twitter a better place with new features and transparent by making the algorithms open- sourced so that there is no place for spam bots. This could also mean he is charging for defraying the cost of running Twitter by authenticating 'human users'. For an app which has not posted any profits in years, it is indeed a challenge to meet its operational costs, particularly, when major companies are pulling out or reconsidering their advertising plans on Twitter. General Motors, a rival of Musk's electric car company Tesla, announced last week it is suspending advertising on its site. IPG, one of the largest advertising companies asked its clients to suspend the ads until they are certain of Musk implementing reasonable and enough "trust and safety" measures on the platform. Now that only people who can afford or are willing to splurge $8/month as a Twitter verification fee to be authenticated as a genuine user, it remains to be seen if the spirit of free speech, the very reason for which Twitter came into existence, could be upheld. The description on Twitter's application page, 'not a reward, incentive, or endorsement', with respect to blue tick status – irrespective of financial obligations— is an idea that is clearly against the concept of Blue Tick charge.