Musk wants verified Twitter users to pay

• After being sued for impersonation, Twitter adopted a blue and white check mark in 2009.
• The option was touted as security for users at risk of having their accounts fraudulently copied.
• Musk is updating Twitter Blue to let users to pay $8 per month.

After being sued by then-St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa for impersonation, Twitter adopted a blue and white check mark in 2009.

Twitter verified artists, athletes, government leaders and agencies, and other public individuals. The option, which began with intentions to verify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was touted as security for users at risk of having their accounts fraudulently copied and as a benefit to all users, letting them know they could trust information supplied by notable figures.

It became a platform staple, imitated by Facebook, and gave recipients a new cultural cachet. Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, wants to modify verification, which might affect who receives a blue check mark and make it harder for users to notice phony and fraudulent behavior.

Musk announced this week that he is updating Twitter Blue to let users to pay $8 per month to get or stay verified. The world’s richest billionaire also employed populist language, calling the move a way to dismantle “Twitter’s current lords & peasants structure for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark.”

If customers buy on, the proposal might generate new cash for Twitter, which Musk needs after his $44 billion acquisition of the firm, which was partly funded with debt. During his months-long effort to get out of the acquisition arrangement, he indicated that confirming more real, human users could help reduce bogus and spam accounts.

Requiring users to pay for verification with a bank account or credit card would raise the bar for fake accounts. Musk tweeted Wednesday that his new method will suspend verified accounts for “spam/scam/impersonation, but Twitter will keep their money!” He also claimed he will tag public individuals separately, like Twitter does for government officials and state media representatives.

However, the measure may disincentivize prominent accounts from getting verified, making it tougher for users to identify them. It may not stop bot and inauthentic activity either.

“In fact, this is making Twitter a pay-for-play system, and we know that propagandists, people working to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulation via Twitter, are very much willing and able to finance their operations,” said Samuel Woolley, assistant professor at the University of Texas’ School of Information and author of “Bots.”

“Most of the propagandists that social media firms are most worried about—the Russian government, the Chinese government, extremist groups—have a lot of resources,” he said.

“Buy thousands of iPhones and put them on racks… and that’s a considerably more costly endeavor than paying a $8 verification fee,” Woolley added. A human might pay to verify an account and let a machine run it, creating a bot-verified account.

Other issues may arise. According to a company whistleblower complaint from months ago, users may be wary of giving their bank or credit card information to a corporation with serious security weaknesses. Many countries lack banking services. Regular Twitter users who don’t concerned about Twitter “clout” or being impersonated may not want to pay for a blue check.

It’s unclear what would prevent someone from creating and paying to validate an account fraudulently mimicking someone else, undercutting the feature’s intended purpose. Someone could pay to verify themselves as a customer care agent for a corporation and then use their blue check mark to deceive unwary clients.

Twitter did not immediately answer questions regarding the concept, including how it would prevent imitation.

Musk bought Twitter to promote “free speech,” but critics worry that the new subscription option may divide discourse by income. Musk said members would have precedence in answers, mentions, and search, publish lengthier video and audio content, and get half as many advertising as free users under the new arrangement.

Jessica González, co-CEO of media accountability Free Press, was among of a group of civil society representatives that met with Musk earlier this week to address content moderation and a recent rise in vile rhetoric on the site. “I told him $8 a month is really problematic.”

Stephen King and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have criticized the subscription change on Twitter. “Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the concept that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” Ocasio Cortez tweeted Wednesday.

“To all the complainers, please continue whining, but it will cost $8,” Musk tweeted Wednesday.

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