new York
CNN
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Some VIP Twitter users woke up Saturday expecting to have lost their coveted blue verification checkmarks in a previously announced purge by Elon Musk. Instead, Twitter appears to be targeting a single account from a large group. Musk doesn’t like this post and has changed the language on his site in a way that obscures why users are verified.
Twitter had announced it would “start phasing out” blue checks awarded under its old verification system – which focused on protecting high-profile users at risk of identity theft – on April 1 . To stay verified, Musk said, users would have to pay $8. per month to join the platform’s Twitter Blue subscription service, which allowed accounts payable for verification since December.
Most former blue check holders noticed this weekend that their verification marks had not disappeared, but had instead been added with a new label stating: “This account is verified because it is subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a former verified account.” » The language, which appears when users click the checkmark, makes it unclear whether the verified accounts are actually notable people or simply users who paid to join Twitter Blue.
But one high-profile account lost its blue check over the weekend: the main account of the New York Times, which previously told CNN it would not pay for verification.
After an account that often interacts with Musk posted a meme over the weekend about the Times’ refusal to pay for verification, Musk responded in a Tweeter saying, “Oh ok, we’ll take it off then.” Musk then attacked the Times – the latest example of the billionaire attacking journalists or media outlets – in a series of tweets who claimed the outlet’s coverage was boring and “propaganda.”
The weekend’s changes are just the latest example of Twitter creating confusion and whiplash for users over feature changes — and in this case, not just any users, but many of the accounts the most prominent ones that have long been a key selling point for the platform. . It also shows how Musk often seems to guide platform decisions more by whim than policy.
Although the main New York Times account lost its blue check, its other accounts, such as those for arts, travel and books, remained verified. (It’s unclear why the New York Times doesn’t have a gold “organizations” checkmark, like accounts at other media outlets, including the Associated Press and the Washington Post.) After its blue checkmark was removed, a New York Times spokesperson The York Times reiterated to CNN that it does not plan to pay for the verification.
Twitter, which laid off most of its public relations staff last fall, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In another confusing move, Twitter’s blue bird logo at the top of the site was replaced Monday with doge, the meme depicting the cryptocurrency dogecoin, which Musk has promoted. The price of dogecoin rose 20% on Monday.
Musk threatened to remove “legacy” blue checkmarks for verified users under Twitter’s old system shortly after his purchase of Twitter last fall.
At the beginning of November, Twitter launched the possibility for people paying for their Twitter Blue subscription to receive blue checks. The program was quickly put on hiatus after being plagued by a wave of celebrity and corporate impersonators, and was relaunched in December.
Twitter also rolled out a color-coded verification system with different color markings for businesses and government entities, but Musk continued to assert that individual users would eventually have to pay for blue checks.
In the days before the blue check purge, this was not the case, Prominent users such as actor William Shatner and anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinksy have objected to the idea that, as power users who attract attention on the site, they should pay for a feature that protects them against identity theft.
By confusing why accounts are verified, the new label could risk making it easier to defraud or impersonate high-profile users. Experts on inauthentic behavior also said it was unclear whether reserving verification for paying users would reduce the number of bots on the site, an issue Musk has raised repeatedly over the past year.
Musk, for his part, has previously outlined changes to Twitter’s verification system as a way to “treat everyone equally.”
“There shouldn’t be different standards for celebrities,” he said in a tweet last week. The paid feature could also generate revenue, which could help Musk, who is struggling with significant debt after buying Twitter for $44 billion.
Musk also said last week that starting April 15, only verified accounts would be recommended in users’ “For You” feeds, alongside accounts they follow.
–Oliver Darcy of CNN contributed to this report.