The IT Nerd

Yesterday in one of my posts about the sideshow that Twitter has become under Elon Musk, I said this about Twitter’s plan to charge $20 a month to have people keep their verified status on Twitter. AKA: The blue checkmark:

I really can’t see movie stars, politicians and athletes who are already verified by Twitter giving Elon Musk $20 a month to keep their blue checkmark. What I do see them doing is abandoning the platform in droves. 

That appears to be playing out right in front of our eyes. A reader pointed me towards this Tweet with novelist Steven King:

$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022

We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

Musk’s habit of throwing out comments that can come across as insulting and dismissive really isn’t helping him here. Then he said this:

I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022

I can’t wait to see how he dances arounds this issue. Because Musk really created a situation that has caused all sorts of noise that he simply didn’t need to create. And Zack Nelson who is also known as “JerryRigEverything” summed it up best:

Big accounts are the reason small accounts even show up to the platform.

Twitter ain't going to tweet to itself if the big accounts are gone.

If payment is required – bots/dead accounts still need to be eliminated among the unverified.

— JerryRigEverything (@ZacksJerryRig) November 1, 2022

On top of that, Hopewell Chin’ono who is a Zimbabwean investigative journalist and documentary film maker had this to say:

Good morning @elonmusk

For a lot of journalists in Africa, verification has helped us to not fall victim to State tactics to use our names to spread propaganda.

I have been to jail 3 times inside 6 months for exposing corruption.

Few African journalists will afford the US$20. pic.twitter.com/MW3AMPXgBO

— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) November 1, 2022

The point here is that Musk is too busy trying to make Twitter profitable that he doesn’t see the bigger picture of what Twitter actually is. It also reinforces that he acts on impulse and doesn’t think through his schemes. Musk at this this point is causing so much chaos within Twitter that there’s zero chance that Twitter survives. And I would say that Musk should really figure out an exit strategy that puts Twitter into the hands of people who are capable of running the company. Because he’s proven that in the short time that he’s owned Twitter, he’s not capable of running it in a way that encourages people to stay on the platform.

This entry was posted on November 1, 2022 at 8:17 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.