The media establishment and mainstream left are both up in arms over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and his plans to change the platform.
This is certainly the case when it comes to the billionaire entrepreneur’s plans to revamp the blue check verification system.
For years, Twitter has used the blue check on users’ profiles to denote that an account is verified and of public interest, including celebrities, politicians and journalists.
But the “public interest” part of it was always nebulous and up to the interpretation of Twitter employees and management, which Musk himself admitted carry an obvious left-wing bias.
So, Musk’s solution to the verification system was to open it up to all users, for an $8 fee. According to the Associated Press, the new system may launch soon before the upcoming Nov. 8 midterm elections.
On Saturday, Musk responded to criticism of his newly proposed system, arguing for its necessity and for why the old system was flawed.
Far too many legacy “verified” checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality they are *not* verified. You can buy as many as you want right now with a Google search.
Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
“Far too many legacy ‘verified’ checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality they are *not* verified. You can buy as many as you want right now with a Google search,” Musk tweeted in response to criticism from Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Dogecoin.
Were Twitter employees selling verification badges?
Yes: 100% (37 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification.”
In response to Musk’s tweet, a prominent Twitter user with 900,000 followers known as “Chairman” responded with a critique of Twitter’s old verification system.
According to him, Twitter employees were selling verification for as much as $15,000 a pop “behind the scenes” and refused to verify other accounts that seemingly qualified.
The Chairman account then posited that an investigation into these shady dealings is in order.
Musk responded with one simple word — “Yup.”
Yup
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
It already appears that Musk is investigating seemingly illicit dealings that took place a Twitter prior to his purchase of the company going through.
Internal messages from the company shared by Musk suggest Twitter was lying in court during the purchase.
Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come … pic.twitter.com/CifaNvtRtt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
“Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come …” Musk tweeted.
