• Brands that haven’t applied for verification will soon have to spend at least $1 000 in advertising per month to maintain their verified status.
• Alternatively brands could simply pay the same amount for Verification Elon Musk suggested.
• Twitter is currently in the slow process of being rebranded to X.

This week Elon Musk began the great rebranding of Twitter into his vision of an “everything app” hoping to mimic China’s WeChat with X. The rebrand has been bumpy with many of the website’s accounts and features still showcasing the Twitter name.

While this process is underway, Twitter is seemingly getting firm with brands regarding their verified status on the website.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the social media platform warned brands that if they haven’t spent at least $1 000 on advertising in the last 30 days or $6 000 on ads in the last 180 days they will lose their verification mark starting from 7th August.

This doesn’t seem to apply for brands that are already paying for verification as Musk responded to a tweet saying that instead of buying advertising, brands could just pay for verification instead.

Verification on Twitter is no longer free with prices starting from $1 000 for the gold checkmark and $50 for Affiliate users. Locally this amounts to R18 100 per month.

It’s quite simply, an untenable amount for a smaller brand – our publication included – to justify paying every month.

And advertising on Twitter isn’t all that great of a play either even if new bookings are discounted by 50 percent in the US and UK. This is because adverts are at risk of being hit by Community Notes. While some could argue that fact checks on advertising are a good thing, the risk of elaborating in advertising may be too great for advertisers when they could advertise without that risk on say, Facebook with three billion daily active users.

Earlier this year two “pretty big” advertisers pulled $40 million in advertising on Twitter after being hit by Community Notes. While Musk implored the advertisers to contradict the fact check it’s not clear whether they returned.

It all just feels a bit hostile and it’s not exactly where brands fit into X. It’s clear that Elon Musk wants to drive financial transactions, but X is also meant to be a place for creators with AI looped into it all somehow. It’s all just a bit confusing and turbulent at the moment.

We suppose that is the nature of rebranding an entire online presence and perhaps things will stablise once the dust has cleared and there’s a shiny new sign outside the building. Provided police don’t stop that while it’s happening.