Twitter is about to become a slightly more hostile place for users who do not pay for Twitter Blue, the service that for 9.6 euros a month allows you to edit tweets and obtain the blue symbol of a verified account that until the arrival of Elon Musk was reserved for accounts that were at risk of being impersonated.
As of April 1, all users verified before the arrival of Elon Musk will lose the verified symbol if they do not sign up for the service. Musk advanced this decision shortly after buying the social network in November of last year, but it has taken him several months to implement the necessary changes to the tool to make it possible.
The measure affects many famous or public profile users on the network, and some have shown their discontent publicly, such as the writer Stephen King or the actor William Shatner, known for playing the role of Captain Kirk in the original Star series. Trek.
"I've been here for 15 years contributing my wits for nothing. Now you're telling me I have to pay for something you gave me for free?" Shatner said.
Musk, however, seems determined to remove these verified ones despite the fact that it affects the community that participates the most on Twitter and is responsible for much of the traffic. "It's more about considering everyone equally. There shouldn't be a different standard for celebrities, in my opinion," Musk responded.
As it happens, Musk gave this answer the same day that Platformer, a newsletter in charge of following the movements of the big social networks, confirmed that Elon Musk has a list of 35 accounts whose tweets are promoted more intensively, including the hers. The list also includes several politicians and some far-right commentators.
The second decision that will affect those who do not pay for the service is that as of April 15, they will not be able to vote in Twitter polls. "It's the only realistic way to address the advanced bot swarms that are going to start coming with AI," he explained on his Twitter account.
In addition to not being able to participate in voting, non-paying users also won't be featured in the recommended tweets tab, an algorithmically rather than chronologically ordered list of tweets that Musk is trying to push to improve engagement on the social network.
Musk needs to increase the number of users of the Twitter Blue service to make up for the drop in advertisers since he took control of the social network. Nearly half of Twitter's big advertisers have stopped using the service or paused many of their campaigns since November.
Musk, who paid more than $44 billion for Twitter, has recently had to admit that the company's true value is far less. In a letter to employees explaining the new salary bonus and stock options policy, he has valued Twitter at $20 billion, less than half of what he initially paid.
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