• Twitter retired the old verification system last week and already there is controversy.
• At the weekend several high profile accounts were gifted the blue checkmark associated with verification leading to many denying they paid a subscription.
• These accounts include authors Neil Gaiman and Stephen King who slammed Musk for the gift.

Does Elon Musk like you? That is the question you should be asking yourself instead of “Should I pay for Twitter Blue”.

This is because shortly after retiring the legacy verification system, Elon Musk began dolling out the blue check marks which signify a subscription to Twitter Blue to accounts he deemed worthy. On Friday the Twitter accounts of William Shatner and Lebron James sported blue checkmarks. It was later revealed that Musk had paid for these subscription.

In doing this, Musk has simply created a new lords and peasants system in which he gets to decide who gets free Twitter Blue.

Unfortunately, Musk didn’t stop there and began comping Twitter Blue subscriptions left and right. This fervour increased as the hashtag #BlockTheBlue began trending.

This seemingly displeased Musk and an account named Block The Blue, which rallied users to block those with blue checkmarks, was banned from the platform at the weekend.

We suspect that Musk thought folks would be pleased with receiving the gift of Twitter Blue but that didn’t happen. Instead, authors Stephen King and Neil Gaiman categorically rejected the mark with King even going so far as to tell Musk to rather donate the cost of the subscription to “lifesaving services in Ukraine”. This displeased Musk.

The mention of turning down DoD (Department of Defence) money is odd when reports suggest SpaceX and the Pentagon are actually strengthening that relationship. Perhaps the billionaire is talking about Twitter not taking Department of Defence money which, while comforting, would be odd if it was.

Quite frankly, it’s a disaster and this weekend has likely done more damage to the reputation of Twitter Blue than leaving the matter would have done.

While before some may have mocked Twitter Blue subscribers, the threat of being blocked en-masse and having your reach limited because of those mass-blocking campaigns is sure to drive away would-be subscribers. Rather than a mark of trust, the checkmark has become a mark of shame.

Twitter comedian dril was also gifted the mark seemingly given his criticism of it. The user has spent the better part of the weekend trying to shed the checkmark with mild success.

Worse still, the blue mark of shame has been added to accounts that were operated by folks who have passed away. One example is of Terry Pratchett who passed in 2015. The beloved author’s page which still promotes Pratchett’s work sports a blue check mark. The account retweeted Gaiman’s thoughts on the matter.

There are speculations that Twitter Blue is being gifted to accounts with one million or more followers. This would make sense from a business standpoint as asking those folks to pay to continue enjoying the safety of verification, is a bad move.

We’re curious to see how this plays out and more importantly, if paying for verification remains a marquee feature for Twitter.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]