social media
Twitter equates old and new verification ticks
Elon Musk speaks at a conference. photo
© Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
After switching the verification tick to a payment model, further confusion promptly follows. And a traditional media company is now apparently completely unchecked.
With the next innovation in its verification symbols, Twitter has further devalued the usefulness of the symbols that were once helpful. The difference between the ticks previously given to prominent users after a check and the new payment symbols without real verification was completely blurred on Monday night.
Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced that the previous symbols will be removed from April 1st. Many well-known users such as basketball star LeBron James have made it clear in the past few days that they will not subscribe to keep the white tick on a blue background in their profiles.
As of Monday, numerous previously verified accounts still had the symbol – but the explanatory text was adjusted for both types of ticks. Previously, when users clicked on the symbol, they were shown whether it was once given away for free or was now purchased with a subscription payment. Now all ticks state that the account either has a subscription or was previously verified.
No tick for the “New York Times”
An exception was the profile of the “New York Times”, which has not had a verification tick since the weekend. A Twitter user had previously pointed out to Musk that the newspaper had announced that it would not pay for a subscription with the symbol. “Ok, let’s take it away then,” Musk replied. He then attacked the newspaper in more tweets. Among other things, he wrote that the “New York Times” spreads “propaganda that is not even interesting”. He called the newspaper’s tweets “diarrhea”.
Meanwhile, other major US media had announced that they would not pay for the symbol. They still had their ticks on Monday. Musk often responds to tweets on Twitter from a handful of accounts with right-wing political views. He has long accused the media of reporting unfairly about him. He recently wrote that they are “racist” against whites.
Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion last October. This was followed by a slump in advertising revenue – and he only relies more on subscription revenues. The subscription costs eight euros per month for one user. Companies and organizations should pay a monthly basic fee of 950 euros plus 50 euros for each linked account for a golden yellow verification symbol.