Elon Musk-owned social media giant Twitter began removing 'legacy' verified accounts on Thursday.
Previously, a journalist had to furnish a government-issued identity card, show they worked for a verified organisation, and furnish published works to be verified on Twitter. Now anyone with money to shell out is verified, eroding the value that the blue tick once carried.
Elon Musk-owned social media giant Twitter began removing 'legacy' verified accounts on Thursday.
Under Musk, you either pay to keep the verified status —marked by its iconic blue tick— of your account or you lose it.
While several journalists and news organisations lost their blue ticks, the social media platform is now populated by accounts with blue ticks with no authenticity or newsworthiness. But since they can shell out money, they enjoy the perks — not unlike the 'donation-based' admissions in engineering colleges that Indians are familiar with.
When Musk bought Twitter, he said it would be a "digital town square" and also said he was doing it to safeguard democratic values like free speech and moderate conversations as platforms risked drifting towards either Left or Right wing extremism. There were also expectations that Musk would make Twitter more transparent by releasing its source code.
While Twitter did make some of its source code public, most of the other expectations remain unfulfilled. Concerns over hate speech have increased, censorship concerns with Twitter agreeing to governments take-down orders have also emerged, and another weird phenomenon has emerged with the latest exercise — while established journalists and decades-old mainstream news organisations have lost verified status, anonymous trolls or viral content-sharing accounts with no authenticity —or even a name— have been verified.
Earlier, the 'blue tick' signified that a particular account was authentic and notable. Such verification was done mostly for the accounts of public figures, businesses, politicians and elected leaders, government officials, and journalists and media organisations.
For journalists, the blue tick was a mark of recognition of their work and efforts. It aided them in their everyday work, such as in approaching experts for their stories. For example, if an Indian journalist was approaching a US-based expert on Twitter, then the expert was assured that the journalist approaching them was authentic. Not anymore. Now the only assurance that the blue tick brings is that the person having it can shell out money.
While Musk said that the earlier verification process made Twitter a "lords & peasants system", the current system makes it a case of perhaps crony capitalism where opacity is patronised in lieu of money. It does not matter whether you are a established journalist or a politician or a troll or an anonymous viral content-sharing account violating copyright laws every minute. The only thing that matters is whether you can afford the subscription fees. If yes, then your copyright violating viral content-sharing account is as much notable as of a journalist who previously got the blue tick after working in the field for years or the media organisation that established its credibility after decades of hard work.
For example, consider this account named "Megh Updates". It claims to be an open-source intelligence-sharing account and a news portal. It is neither. It simply scours the web for viral videos and circulates them, ranging from events in Pakistan to chants of Jai Shri Ram by the Hindu Right in India.
A casual scroll through the account shows you that it regularly shares news content from media organisations without attribution and catres to the right-wing causes. However, despite serving no notable purpose and sharing viral content or reports of news organisations with no attribution, Megh Updates continues to have the blue tick.
Meanwhile, several mainstream news organisations with decades of work behind them have lost their blue ticks.
Another account titled "Eminent Intellectual" that labels itself a parody account in the bio is verified. The account mocks the ongoing same-sex marriage hearings in the Supreme Court, peddles Hindutva rhetoric on Muslims, and mocks the Left. It's nothing notable and is not unlike the usual WhatsApp forwards. But since the person running the account can afford the money, it's verified.
Meanwhile, CNBCTV18, Outlook, or Outlook Traveller, organisations with decades of work behind them, are not verified. This is the Musk's "digital Town Square", whatever it means.
Another anonymous account with the name of Bala —no last name— calls homosexuality a "mental illness" with the blue tick.
Previously, a journalist had to furnish a government-issued identity card, show they worked for a verified organisation, and furnish samples of their work to be verified on Twitter. This meant that professionals with a track record of work with established news organisations were verified. It was a recognition of their work. Now the space is up for sale.
Rather than bringing meritocracy as Musk had hinted earlier, the current system is leading to just about anyone, even anonymous accounts, to get verified. The only thing needed is money.
The blue tick for individual accounts is up for sale at Rs 650 a month. The blue tick for organisations is up for sale at Rs 82,300 a month. No credibility, authenticity, or even a real name is required. From anonymous trolls to parody accounts, Musk's Twitter is up for sale.