Elon Musk imposes blue seal on accounts with over 1 million followers even if they don’t want to

Elon Musk is imposing the blue stamp of twitter for accounts that have more than 1 million followers on the platform, even if the feature has not been requested and paid for by the user. Some of the accounts that received the seal are from people who have died, like Anthony Bourdain and Chadwick Boseman.

On Saturday the 22nd, accounts that had lost verification (including those with more than 1 million followers) realized that the badge was back, even though they had not done anything about it. On Thursday, the 20th, Musk came forward with a long-threatened pledge to remove verification from around 400,000 accounts unless they signed up for Twitter Blue, which costs more than $8 a month in the United States. In Brazil, the annual value on Android and IOS reaches BRL 629.

Many were unhappy with the situation, as having the blue seal has come to mean a demonstration of support for Musk’s changes since he bought the social network at the end of last October. Among them are writer Neil Gaiman and Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman. On his account, Gaiman wrote: “For those curious, I didn’t subscribe to Twitter Blue. I didn’t give anyone my phone number. What a sad and disorganized place this is. [o Twitter] it became”.

For the curious, I’m not subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t given anyone my phone number. What a sad, muddled place this has become. pic.twitter.com/Ju125xyoUx

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 23, 2023

Those who didn’t agree to get the stamp back even exchanged experiences and tips on how to get rid of the brand, as a way of expressing their outrage towards Musk.

The action appears to be an attempt to recover the credibility of the blue seal. On the same day the checks were dropped, Elon Musk admitted that he was paying for some twitter to retain their blue badges, such as profiles of writer Stephen King, actor William Shatner and basketball star LeBron James, who kept their badges despite not having subscribed to the site’s subscription service.

You’re welcome namaste

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

Twitter Blue

Under Musk’s plans for Twitter Blue, subscriber responses will gain greater prominence in users’ default feed, while the tweets you interact with will also be enhanced. However, Twitter will continue to display accounts that people follow in the feed, regardless of whether or not they are a Twitter Blue subscriber.

Musk said the move to paid verification is necessary to root out automated bot accounts and generate an alternative source of income to advertising, which accounts for the bulk of Twitter’s revenue. So far, less than 5% of the 407,000 verified profiles have signed up for the new plan, according to Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who monitors social media platforms.

In addition to celebrities and journalists, many government agencies, non-profit organizations and public service accounts around the world also lost their blue checks on Thursday, raising concerns that Twitter could lose its status as a platform for accurate information and updates from authentic sources, including in emergencies.

Twitter also offers gold badges to “verified organizations” and gray checks to government organizations and their affiliates, but it’s unclear how the platform distributes them. The gold seal has been reinstated for some media outlets, such as the AFP and The New York Times.

After buying San Francisco-based Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost the struggling platform’s revenue by getting more people to pay for a premium subscription. His move, however, also reflects his claim that blue checkmarks have become an undeserved or “corrupt” status symbol for elite people.