Twitter’s blue check mark was once a coveted status symbol.
Now, some users are calling it “the dreaded mark” or that “stinking badge”.
Last week, Twitter began stripping the verification symbols
from the profiles of thousands of celebrities, media personalities, and
politicians. The shift came as Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, continued to roll
out Twitter Blue, a subscription service that offers special features like
tweet-editing in addition to the blue badge — for $8 a month.
اضافة اعلان
Now that anyone can purchase a blue check, many users find
the symbol newly uncool. The icon makes its owner appear “desperate for
validation,” according to rapper Doja Cat. To others, it signals support for
Musk amid his bumpy takeover of the platform. Users who value the symbol enough
to pay for it are being shouted over by a chorus of prominent users who say
verification is no longer worth it.
Can the blue check remain desirable now that it has lost its
air of exclusivity?
“The idea that you would pay for status, and that it’s
something that’s not conferred upon you, seems to be fundamentally undesirable
for people who have status,” said Robyn Caplan, a senior researcher at the Data
& Society Research Institute.
Jacob Sartorius, 20, a musician and content creator, said he
was elated to get a blue check in 2016. “It was an honor. It was kind of a
symbol of, wow, something’s happening,” he said.
Sartorius said he would now rather spend $8 on a sandwich
from Subway than on Twitter Blue. “It’s not something that’s cool anymore,” he
said.
Twitter users’ self-consciousness when it comes to their
blue checks speaks to the symbol’s evolution from a tool designed to prevent
impersonation into a fickle marker of cultural relevance.
Twitter introduced verification badges in 2009 during what
Caplan called the “red carpet era” of social media, when companies were trying
to coax celebrities and brands onto their platforms. The badges reassured
public figures that they would not be impersonated, and the recognition served
as an ego boost.
Because so many public figures received badges, and the
faceless masses did not, jockeying for verification became something of a blood
sport — and the blue check a symbol of victory. Guides proliferated online
advising users on how to gain entry to the club.
Musk sought to undermine that two-tiered approach, which he
called a “lords & peasants system.” He has framed Twitter Blue as a move to
democratize the platform.
Waves of blue-check paranoia began to sweep across the
platform last year, when Musk said he would soon start removing check marks
from users’ profiles. After allowing the expected judgment day to come and go
at the start of this month, Musk began removing the badges on April 20. (Musk
has long shown an affinity for the number 420, which is often used to allude to
marijuana, once dropping it into a tweet that landed him in hot water with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.)
Musk did not respond to a request for comment, and an email
to Twitter’s communications department was automatically replied to with a poop
emoji.
Last Thursday’s purge began to change the meaning of the
symbol almost within hours. Then it shifted again, when blue checks reappeared
on prominent accounts over the weekend.
Sartorius said he was annoyed when his blue check
mysteriously reappeared, because he was worried that his followers would think
he had paid for Twitter Blue. Checks also popped up on the accounts of LeBron
James, Stephen King, and Paul Dochney, who posts as @dril, all of whom said
they would not pay for verification. (Musk said he was paying for “a few”
Twitter Blue accounts himself, including James’.)
Some were able to ditch them. Comedian Patton Oswalt said he
had rid himself of his by changing his display name. Sartorius said he might do
the same. Chrissy Teigen called her blue check a form of “punishment,” and said
she eventually got rid of it.
Travis Brown, a software developer who has been tracking
subscriptions on the site, estimated that between 615,000 and 650,000 accounts
currently have Twitter Blue verification, and that, as of last Thursday, around
4.8 percent of accounts verified under the previous system had Blue verification.
He also estimated that about 8,000 accounts verified under the previous system
had been gifted Blue verification.
Those who did not regain their verification venture on,
checkless, into a murky future. Adam Richman, 48, who hosts television shows
about food, lost his check Thursday. He said that the badge no longer
functioned as an effective authenticator and that he was not interested in
wearing it as a status symbol.
“If my little cousin, who’s 8 years old, can get a blue
check mark, what’s the point?” he said.
Read more Trending
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
