The launch of Twitter’s paid blue tick, which now costs $8 a month after previously being free, could become a case study in business schools around the world, with some users calling it a “debacle” and media pundits a mess and call it incompetent.
Twitter is iconic blue ticks began to disappear last week as the company transitioned fully to its new subscription service called Twitter Blue. Blue ticks were first introduced by Twitter as a free service to verify the identity of users who could be victims of impersonation, such as politicians, journalists and celebrities.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last year, is now telling users to pay $8 a month to keep their verification — though he said last week he was pay for three celebrities so they could keep their blue checks: Stephen King, LeBron James and William Shatner.
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We are not subscribed to Twitter Blue.
— Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (@MIT) April 23, 2023
But other celebrities and top accounts are now finding their accounts also sport the Twitter blue tick despite not paying for it, like author Neil Gaiman, actor Ron Perlman, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and the Massachusetts Institute of the Technology. Twitter accounts of some late celebrities such as Anthony Bourdain and Kobe Bryant also carried the Twitter Blue check, with the site saying they “subscribe to Twitter Blue and have verified their phone number.”
“Like many of the changes Twitter has made since Elon Musk acquired it, the launch of Twitter Blue was frantic and utterly inconsistent,” Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor of communications at Cornell University, said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch.
The reinstatement of ticks within a few days of the mass purge demonstrates a lack of consistency regarding the tick system and does little to restore the weight that the blue tick had in the past, especially when the sign’s meaning has changed to to demonstrate consent to Twitter Blue.
Other media pundits said the rollout went worse than expected.
“I expected chaos and incompetence the day blue ticks were finally vaporized,” wrote Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, on Twitter. “I didn’t expect that he would unbidden replace them on celebrity accounts after they refused to pay.”
Companies often give free products to influential people, such as B. Social media stars receiving products to showcase on YouTube or TikTok, noted Dr. Jennifer Reinwald, assistant professor of communication studies at Widener University.
“The difference here is that many of the celebrities and public figures whose ticks were reinstated did not willingly agree to return the blue tick with its new connection to the Twitter Blue program,” she added.
That makes it “a poor indicator of product support and trust in the platform,” she said.
Gaiman tweeted that he did not subscribe to the service or give the company his phone number.
“What a sad, muddled place this has become,” the author of best-sellers such as “American Gods” wrote on Twitter.
For the curious, I am not subscribed to Twitter Blue. I didn’t give anyone my phone number. What a sad, confused place this has become. pic.twitter.com/Ju125xyoUx
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 23, 2023
When approached for comment, Twitter responded with a poop emoji, which Musk said last month would become the standard answer for press questions.
“If anything proves #Musk has no clue what he’s doing, the #BlueTick debacle does,” noted Michael Markovitz of South America’s Gordon Institute of Business Science media leadership think tank on Twitter.
impersonators
While the original blue ticks were free, users had to prove they were who they said they were before receiving one — a process that sometimes took weeks for Twitter staff to verify an applicant’s identity. But with the removal of a verification service and its replacement by a pay-to-play system, impersonation accounts are now popping up on Twitter.
“[M]The blue tick has only been gone for a few hours… and there’s already an impersonator,” KKCO-TV journalist Adam Woodbrey wrote on Twitter.
Other fake accounts have surfaced posing as government accounts like the City of New York and celebrities like author JK Rowling. Although these accounts have been banned by Twitter, they underscore the challenge Twitter faces as blue checks can now be purchased without proof of identity.
“While platform company policies are said to protect users from various scams, we’re already seeing certain groups arming Twitter’s new service with impersonator accounts,” Duffy said. “Some of these impersonator accounts are considered parody, but we shouldn’t overlook the economic and psychological impact on individual targets.”
“Block the Blue”
Some Twitter users are responding to the confusion and troubles with Twitter Blue by blocking users who have a blue tick next to their name as part of a campaign called “Block the Blue.”
“The vast majority of accounts that appear in my paid blue check feed are trolls, sock puppets, or gardeners. Blocking the blue is now a good heuristic,” wrote journalist David Moscrop on Twitter.
Good point. The vast majority of accounts that appear in my paid blue check feed are trolls, sock puppets, or garden varieties.
Block the Blue is now a good heuristic. https://t.co/FXKT2yNv4r
— David Moscrop: Subscribe to my substack. (@David_Moscrop) April 20, 2023
Sure, Twitter could iron out the bumps in the launch of Twitter Blue, but the service’s bumpy launch could pose a challenge to its launch, experts say.
“Given the confusing introduction, it remains to be seen whether users will see it as a worthwhile investment,” added Duffy.
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