Twitter blue checkmarks are over. The seal that until now differentiated the official accounts of celebrities from the false ones and gave authority to other professionals is now an exclusive hallmark of those who pay for the subscription service. The new owner of the social network, Elon Musk, already announced the measure a few months ago, although there are three world-famous people who have a certain privilege.
This is the actor William Shatner, known for playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek; “The Kingâ€, LeBron James, basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers; and the American writer Stephen King. Musk does not hide from it and it was himself who confirmed it through his Twitter account when the rumor broke out.
On April 1, Twitter announced that it was beginning to withdraw the blue badges, but, as Musk notified through a message posted on his account, the final date to withdraw this distinctive seal would be April 20. And so it has been. Journalists, politicians, celebrities and other prominent users who want to keep this badge will have to pay a monthly fee of $8, as the owner of the social network announced right after buying the platform.
The decision affects the entire world, not just the United States. In Spain, for example, most of the main political parties have lost their blue badge. The PSOE, the PP and Podemos no longer have it since yesterday. However, VOX maintains it, which means that it has paid for the subscription service.
The South African’s decision is due to purely economic reasons. Musk needs to earn revenue from the platform to repay his huge investment of 44,000 million euros. From the first moment, the tycoon was critical of the fact that this stamp had always been free. You only had to meet a series of requirements. The objective of this distinction was to avoid impersonation, something that cannot be differentiated if you only have to pay a monthly fee.
Musk announced another subscription plan that went beyond the verification seal. Twitter Blue is the “pack” that allows its subscribers to perform more functions in the application, such as editing tweets, posting messages of up to 10,000 characters, and getting the platform’s algorithm to promote their tweets. In this case, it should be noted that it is necessary to meet certain requirements, in addition to paying the subscription.
These premium plans are key to the financial growth of the platform, but this change in the rules of the game caused a 50% decrease in advertising revenue between October 2022 and last March 2023. The same tycoon confirmed it to via a tweet, also noting that only 1% of users are subscribed to Twitter Blue, while more than 500 million people use the social network on a monthly basis.
