Elon Musk Twitter-Good news for anyone who wants to pay Elon Musk $8 to like on Twitter! The billionaire plans to relaunch his verification system next week, The Hollywood Reporter reported. The paid checkmark will remain blue, but the checkmark identifying the government will turn gray and the company checkmark will turn gold.
Elon Musk Twitter launch verification system
When Elon Musk launched his Twitter verification system in early November, the $8 checkmarks were the same color as the checkmarks of all other accounts — which were used to identify official accounts and real people. Twitter’s trust and security team reportedly warned Musk that the move would lead to fraudsters and impersonators abusing the new verification system.
Musk launched the new system anyway. In a shocking twist, fraudsters and impersonators have abused the new authentication system.
Ever since Elon Musk’s bought Twitter, he seemed dedicated to promoting the blue tick as a status symbol. The new paid tick will remain the same color as verified celebrities and other public figures. Elon Musk said that Twitter will manually verify the newly verified accounts, so everyone will know that a blue checkmark means a real person paid Elon Musk $8.
In addition to the new verification system, the social media company has undergone several other massive changes in the past month. Elon Musk fired Twitter management immediately after buying the company. He then fired half of Twitter’s staff. He last announced plans to restore suspended accounts shortly after reactivating former President Donald Trump’s suspended account.
The changes come as Elon Musk tries to make Twitter profitable.
He previously said the social media site, which he saddled with $13 billion in debt to complete his purchase, was losing $4 million a day.
Elon Musk’s changes to Twitter have not been without consequences. According to Media Matters for America, advertisers have been fleeing the platform in droves. As of November 21, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have stopped advertising on Twitter. So far, these advertisers have paid Twitter $750 million in 2022 — about $2.3 million per day. That means if Musk’s changes to the platform don’t yield $6 million in daily savings this month, the company will continue to operate at a massive loss.
It’s unclear whether advertisers who fled Elon Musk’s Twitter will stay away from the platform, which is said to be more active than at any time since Musk took over. It is also unclear how popular the new authentication system will be, but it must be extremely popular to make up for the company’s financial shortfall.
In addition to Twitter’s apparent financial problems, the company is now facing lawsuits from fired employees who say the mass layoffs did not comply with California law. Elon Musk was also sued for firing Twitter employees in Ghana, leading Twitter to negotiate with employees to offer legally required severance pay.
Time will tell how Elon Musk’s new Twitter verification system will work. It is certainly possible that its limited staff will be able to successfully prevent impersonation using its new manual verification system. But it’s unlikely enough people will pay $8 a month to make a dent in the company’s $4 million daily loss — a staggering amount that equates to 15 million paying users.