In case you have been out of the loop or you haven’t checked Twitter recently, Emperor Elon Musk has yanked off legacy verification (blue tick) from every legacy-verified account including that of renowned world politicians, celebrities, journalists, athletes etc; no matter who you are, emperor Musk has taken away your blue tick and you are expected to pay a monthly recurring fee of $8 if you want to have your blue tick back.
What could possibly be the reason for this move by Twitter management?
In case you are also wondering their reasons; according to Twitter Public Relations, this decision came as part of Elon Musk’s efforts to get rid of the so-called “lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark.” This implies that Elon Musk wants every animal to be equal in the Twitter kingdom; if you want to be more equal than others, then you will have to pay a stipend of $8 for it and to maintain that status you will have to be paying $8 every month.
This is what we were told by Twitter for being the reason for the removal of the legacy verification and the new payment for blue tick but we all know that the reason stated by Twitter HQ is just so as to make them look cool; the primary reason as we all can tell for the introduction of the payment of the Twitter blue tick is for revenue generation. This is a money-generating model for Twitter. Twitter introduced this format as a means to raise its income and I am so sure that other social media platforms especially Meta will follow suit.
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Twitter can only afford to make this move without the fear of losing its users because they are aware of the total reliance of its users on the platform. I don’t think any other platform which is yet to attain the status of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram can afford to make this move. The day WhatsApp or Telegram request users to start paying for verification I’m so sure that half of its users will abandon the platform and port; especially iPhone users will quickly abandon the platform totally for iMessage.
So far be it, I can predict that the long-term effect of this may be disastrous. When individuals have to pay to be on a platform and to enjoy the full services of a platform which ought to be totally free then the advocacy for free speech should be reconsidered.
Monetization is good but it should be carefully done so as not to flush away the core value of the platform. We have always known Twitter to be a strong preacher of free speech but since Elon Musk took over the helm of power, Twitter only became interested in cutting costs, generating revenues and monetization of its products.
The development has affected several individuals including famous Nigerians as Twitter insists on an $8 monthly payment to subscribe to its ‘Twitter Blue’ if account holders must retain their verification badge, or for those who want to get the blue tick newly.