Elon Is Now Forcing Bluechecks On Users Who Don’t Want Them, And Refusing To Let Them Hide Them
from the you-will-display-your-bluecheck-and-you-will-shut-up-about-it dept
Apparently, the forced bluechecking will continue until the culture on ExTwitter improves.
Providing a bit more confirmation to the theory that Elon’s recent decision to give free “Premium” accounts to basically anyone with a half-decent follower base was about his realization that only the absolute worst people were willing to pay for Twitter Blue, Twitter Premium, X Premium, Elon is no longer letting users hide their blue check.
Elon had previously done away with handing out verification (which had been separate from Twitter’s premium subscription offering), claiming that it was an unfair system of “lords and peasants,” and kept insisting that the only way to get a bluecheck (which he incorrectly thought was valuable) was to pay $8 (or more) a month.
He has been trying to add more “features” to those who subscribe to entice more than the chud brigade to pay up. This includes having their replies appear on top of everyone else’s, access to his weak also-ran AI system, and a few other things. But it hasn’t worked. A while back, he started handing out free “Premium” accounts to big stars (the beginning of the return of lords and peasants) even if they didn’t want them.
Apparently recognizing that many users didn’t want to set fire to their reputation by admitting they were paying for what ExTwitter had become, the site did allow users who were gifted a bluecheck to hide it. That feature was rolled out last summer. It appears that too many people were using it, which appears to have ruined the whole reason Elon was giving out bluechecks. Indeed, his actions suggested that he knew that the worst thing for some people’s reputations was for people to believe they were giving money to Elon Musk.
And then, a couple weeks ago he took it to a new level, giving a free Premium account to anyone with more than 2,500 followers who also have premium accounts.
And suddenly, the lords and peasants system was back from the grave — though in a dumber, less workable fashion. But it wouldn’t accomplish the need of (1) pretending that the people who users actually cared about were willing to pay Musk, and (2) no longer hiding the replies and tweets from those users that users actually cared about, and forcibly shoving idiot chud content into their feed instead if those users given the free bluechecks could hide them.
Thus, that feature is disappearing. If Elon anoints you “a lord” of ExTwitter, goshdarnit, users are going to see that you’re a “lord” of ExTwitter, whether you like it or not.
Let me translate: “we can’t admit we fucked up, but here’s a message confirming we royally fucked up.”
The hide your checkmark feature of X Premium is going away soon. Tap to manage your X Premium features.
So, we’re now back to lords and peasants where Elon gets to pick and choose who gets a free bluecheck, while suckers who can’t get popular enough on their own can buy their way in.
But, of course, all this does is underline what a complete disaster Musk’s leadership has been here. The company had a really interesting program for premium features (but under-promoted, under-explained). It also had a problematic, but functional, verification program that was never meant to be a status symbol, but rather a way to protect well-known users from impersonation.
Every one of Musk’s assumptions appears to have been wrong. The idea that the blue checkmarks were what was valuable was wrong (nope, when you changed the program, you devalued them massively). The idea that popular users would feel compelled to pay up to keep the bluechecks was wrong (nope, and in fact, many of them were happy to be rid of the buggers). The idea that making people pay for bluechecks and then prioritizing their content would stop spammers rather than (as actually happened), making it way easier for spammers to look marginally legit, by buying their way to “credibility” with Musk’s minions.
This latest move seems like the closest we’ll get to an admission that Musk fucked up. But, it really demonstrates just how desperate things have become that Musk is now handing out “verification” to basically anyone with a popular enough profile, and then forcing them to display this increasingly worthless status symbol.
Filed Under: bluecheck, elon musk, status symbol, twitter blue, verification, x premium
Companies: twitter, x
Comments on “Elon Is Now Forcing Bluechecks On Users Who Don’t Want Them, And Refusing To Let Them Hide Them”
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P2W
The pay-2-win phenomenon in video games and MMOs works because it’s difficult to distinguish who has paid for account boosts, versus those who didn’t pay and accomplished everything without paying extra. It’s enough of an achievement that many folks proudly proclaim their account as free-to-play.
The old Twitter 1.0 checkmark system sucked, but the Twitter 2.0 system screamed “pay-to-win”. This new X-Twitter system at least includes plausible deniability, which has been deemed somewhat acceptable by the masses.
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Why did the old system suck?
Re: Re:
Given that it’s Koby, I’d say they wouldn’t verify his favourite white nationalist blogger/youtuber and that means they were biased against conservatives, or something, despite said blogger continually violating the terms of service they agreed to when joining the platform and somehow never getting banned permenantly, with any automated bans quickly reversed once Jack Dorsey got involved behind the scenes.
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And yet, the badges will still be seen less as badges of identity/verification/notability and more as badges of dishonor. Musk owns the company and makes decisions like changing the verification system; he ultimately has no one to blame for this state of affairs but himself.
Re: Re: using Xitter is a badge of dishonor
How much more dishonorable is it to have a blue check. Leave, people, leave! The world survived just fine without social media for thousands of years, amazingly.
Re: P2w is Obvious.
with P2w, one CAN tell who has and has not paid: by the ‘gear’ they wield and areas they can survive accessing; Company policies and/or DEVs also assure one can NOT have x, y, or z ‘more powerful/feature-rich’ gear UNLESS one has paid. “you would not want anything to happen to your little character now,.. would you?”
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You picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.
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Its incredibly easy to spot who paid money in a MMO. Just look for the shiniest person who asks questions.
He wanted this blue check to make half the Twitter profit, and now he’s given it nearly for free, it has never been so close to amount for the half the actual Twitter earning.
Well done Elon, you’ve finally deliver on one of your promise.
It’s not so much that “lords and peasants” is back, but is actually now instantiated.
I figure this is to poison the auto-check-blockers and other services people use to apply a chud filter.
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Joke’s on Musk, then; the one I use already enables me to override any auto-blocks I didn’t want.
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If it is I suspect it’s going to be but the latest thing to blow up in his face and hopefully result in another exodus of users.
‘Let’s see, now that the blocker is blocking the people I want to see as well I can either disable the blocker and deal with that mess, or I can just stop using the site altogether since it’s been rendered vastly less useful to me. Choices choices…’
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No, it’s to make people unblock accounts with blue check marks, because the spam they produce caused genuine users to hide their blue check marks.
'You'll have the 'I support Elon's Twitter' mark whether you like it or not!'
It is absolutely hilarious that they would not only have the option to hide the blue checkmark but are now removing that feature, as outside of a press conference where Elon himself admits that the mark is considered a mark of shame thanks to his blundering buffoonery and worse this is the next best thing.
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Makes me wonder if this might fall afoul some FTC regulation about endorsements, making it seem as if someone endorses a product when they do not.
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Ehhh, probably not. As funny an idea of Elon having his day ruined over this particular idiocy is it would be pretty trivial for them to argue that blue checkmarks are now also a sign of users with a high enough number of followers, which wouldn’t qualify as those users ‘endorsing’ the site.
Super annoying for users who do not want people to think that they were stupid enough to give Elon money? Absolutely.
Rising to the point of false endorsement charges? Doubtful.
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So what?
His site, his rules.
Leave if you don’t like it!
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Every dumpster fire needs its viewers; otherwise, who would know how spectacular it was?
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Our opinions, our right to express them.
Re: Now show me poutrage
Is your dick so small you can only feel like a “big man” by defending a billionaire?
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Exactly! Use truth social or some other app. Stop whining, go elsewhere or make your own. Or buy X and show everyone how it is done.
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Mastodon! Or was it Bluesky? Ugh, can never remember!
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Senile much?
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Whoosh!
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You appear to have completely missed the point of an opinion blog.
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Why leave when we can mock him relentlessly?
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I didn’t like Ex-Twitter long before Elmo turned it into the unholy mess it is today, so I’m certainly not joining just so I can leave it.
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Nah. I’ll stay here and laugh at him. Thanks anyway.
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I left the day Elon took over. But I also like reading stories like this to confirm how smart that decision was.
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OMG the world is coming to an end if elon forces bluechecks on x users. Call the FBI. Call the army, call Joe biden.
The techdirt clowns at it again.
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Yes, how dare they use their own website to criticize a stupid decision Musk made!
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every accusation a confession that you are a troll clown
Re: This is how you sound bro
More crying]
Leave Elmo alone right now! I mean it! Anyone that has a problem with her you deal with me, because he is not well right now.
[And more crying]
Leave him alone.
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I think you forgot to take your Geodon.
Maybe it’s an actual plan to make money – giving a free check but charging to remove it.
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From my limited understanding that’s how it used to be, where one of the ‘perks’ of a paid account was the ability to hide the checkmark that came with it, what he’s doing is removing that ability so anyone marked cannot hide it.
Close (X)
You know who else forced badges on people who didn’t want them?
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
YES. X-Twitter = Nazis!
Deranged lol
Re: Re:
Elon spends a lot of time engaging with far-right content, and that includes both making sporadic antisemititc posts of his own and retweeting/replying to posts about the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. I wouldn’t call him a Nazi, but even without noting how Nazi-friendly Twitter has been since the buyout, Musk is definitely Nazi-adjacent.
Re: Re: Re:
Dr. Mr. Cody agrees with you (as do I, just to make it clear I’m not Cody Johnston):
https://youtu.be/xDyPSKLy5E4?si=oGPwaB1Yu_XXGR7V
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He’s been characterized as a Nazi sympathizer, with which opinion I wholeheartedly agree.
Re: Re: Re: maybe I was confused
I thought he had a car company to run. That would probably be the sort of job that requires a lot of attention.
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You were so close to getting it…
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I mean, that’s who’s been boosted by Elon’s takeover. Andrew Anglin didn’t unban himself.
If the shoe fits, lace that motherfucker up.
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Meanwhile on Twitter… https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-musk-nazi-extremist-white-nationalist-accounts-rcna145020
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Oh they are so getting sued for that article, don’t they know it’s defamation to even suggest that nazi’s are on Twitter, never mind name specific accounts to provide examples/evidence?
I do not want a twit blue check mark. Afaik, I do not have one .. never created a twit account.
That darn Elon...
Blue checks for Twitter
Pink slips for Tesla
X marks the despot.
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It would have been funnier if you said: X marks de spot.
Us – Elmo can’t do anything that would make twatter worse!
Elmo – Hold my crackpipe!
He turned the check into cyber herpes.
People who didn’t want them have found themselves infected & worse they have now blocked the treatment to remove them.
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Zero sympathy. If your Nazi bar experience isn’t what you’d hoped, maybe reconsider your patronage of Nazi bars.
For me and maybe a lot of us "WHO GIVES AN X?"
I have several former twitter accounts. I DONT USE TWITTER OR X. I occasionally use my Mastodon (pre Musk on Twitter if it matters) accounts. BUT Musk, who I used to actually like, seems like an “I GOTS MONEY” fool. so blue green or red check marks twitter/X is on my domain block-list I couldn’t go there if I was stupid enough to even try.