After a lot of talk about equality and Twitter being the de facto town square, Twitter owner Elon Musk announced that starting on April 15, only tweets from verified accounts — which will only be Twitter Blue subscribed accounts beginning April 1 — will be eligible to be recommended to other users under the “For you” tab.
This is the latest in Musk’s attempts at forcing people to sign up for the social media platform’s paid subscription service — although he claims that this is the “only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over.”
Musk had earlier announced that Twitter would be removing legacy checkmarks by April 1st, meaning all previously verified politicians, celebrities, notable figures, and organizations will need to pay a monthly subscription fee to keep their ‘verification.’
It’s unclear how these moves will impact the swarm of AI bots as the payment model only really requires individual users to pay a monthly fee of $8 without needing to submit an ID for verification.
Musk says this is “more about treating everyone equally.”
While it’s only $8 per month or $84 per year for the individual subscription to Twitter Blue, Twitter Verified Organizations will need to cough up $1000 per month + $50 for each of their affiliate accounts.
Twitter is also removing — or has already removed — basic features for free accounts such as voting on polls (beginning on April 15th), and the SMS option for two-factor authentication (from March 20th).
Gatekeeper of the Town Square
Limiting the ‘For You’ recommendations to paid accounts is also only the latest in post-Musk era Twitter’s moves to control reach for certain accounts. Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer recently revealed that there’s a secret list of ‘Twitter VIPs’ whose content is getting pushed over everyone else’s.
The list includes NBA All-Star LeBron James, Daily Wire founder and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, the pseudonymous conservative commentator @catturd2, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and President Joe Biden.
Musk also reportedly forced Twitter users to see more of his tweets when he saw that his reach was shrinking. He also allegedly fired an engineer who said that this was because his popularity was declining.
Information for this briefing was found via Twitter, Platformer, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
