Twitter has begun showing a new tick badge with the term “Official” on the Twitter accounts of recognised news outlets and prominent leaders in India. This badge appears next to the account name. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and Gadgets 360 both earned their own check marks. For the time being, the old “blue tick” emblem, which indicated that an account had been validated, is also shown alongside verified accounts. Twitter recently caused a storm when it changed the way its well-known blue ticks function. The blue ticks no longer indicate that an account has been verified by Twitter as belonging to a noteworthy institution or individual; rather, they are now given to anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue, the paid offering that the company provides.
After initially suggesting that the privilege should cost $20 per month, Elon Musk, Twitter’s new CEO, made one of the first sweeping changes public by announcing the repurposing of the blue tick and raising the price of Twitter Blue to $8 (approximately Rs. 650) per month. Previously, Musk had suggested that the privilege should cost $20 per month (approximately Rs. 1,630). Musk has also indicated that he wants to expand Twitter Blue to multiple countries including India before the end of November, and that prices will be adjusted in accordance with purchasing power parity. Purchasing power parity refers to the ratio of the cost of living in one country to the cost of living in another country.
A stronger priority will also be given to promoting Twitter Blue subscribers higher in search results, reply threads, and trending topic lists. The amplification of sponsored voices is going to be the end outcome of this, and Musk is expecting that this will help promote adoption of their premium membership service. However, opponents pointed out almost immediately that this undermines the objective of verification since it enables anybody who buys for Twitter Blue to give the impression that their account is verified. This also led to a wave of purposeful efforts to imitate celebrities, including Musk, who subsequently stressed that parody accounts need to be declared as such clearly in their names or risk being permanently suspended from the network. This led to a number of other unintended consequences.
It seems that Twitter’s response to this issue is the creation of a second checkmark with the term “Official,” which has just started showing underneath the account’s handle and name on profile pages and in search results. This looks to be Twitter’s answer to the problem. It is not yet apparent how Twitter will select which accounts qualify for this badge, nor is it known if all users who were previously eligible for verification would be able to get one of these badges.
Since the completion of Musk’s purchase of Twitter, he has been consistently mentioned in the media. He began by dismissing the previous chief executive officer and disbanding the entire board of directors. Most recently, Musk has taken steps to reduce expenses, including a massive round of layoffs, in which an estimated fifty percent of all employees, including entire teams and a significant portion of Twitter’s Indian workforce were forced to leave the company, leaving work unfinished and teams understaffed.
Published at : 09 Nov 2022 09:43 PM (IST)
