Elon Musk defends paid Twitter ahead of Blue Tick deadline

Elon Musk defended his controversial Twitter pay model on Friday, arguing that any social media platform that didn’t follow suit would fail because they would be inundated with bots.

On the eve of Twitter’s April 1st ultimatum, Musk predicted that accounts with the beloved blue tick that hadn’t forked cash would lose it.

“The fundamental challenge here is that it’s (easy) to create literally 10,000 or 100,000 fake Twitter accounts using just one computer at home and modern artificial intelligence,” Musk said in a question-and-answer session on Twitter.

“That’s the reason it’s really hard to verify if the verified requires a number from a reputable carrier and a credit card,” Musk said.

“My prediction is that any so-called social media network that doesn’t do this will fail,” Musk added.

The change in the system puts pressure on companies, journalists and celebrities who used Twitter as their main communication channel and relied on the blue tick for credibility.

And it also raises the specter of scammers and pranksters who pay from an officially verified but completely fake account.

In the US, a subscription to Twitter Blue costs $8 per month, or $84 per year, or $11 per month if purchased from Apple’s app store.

Since its creation in 2009, the blue tick or checkmark became a signature element that helped the platform become a trusted forum for news creators and campaigners.

But Musk and his fans said Fiat decided on the blue check in a secret process, calling it a symbol of an unfair class system.

Opening the blue checkmark to paying subscribers was one of the first decisions Musk made when he took over Twitter last year, but his reform failed.

Within hours, Twitter was flooded with fake but verified accounts impersonating celebrities, major corporations and even Musk himself.

Musk quickly backtracked, but many advertisers fled the site, denying Twitter a major source of revenue that the CEO is struggling to replace.

Until now, the blue checks of celebrities – including Justin Bieber and his 113 million followers, or soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and his 108 million – are marked on the site as “old” accounts.

– “It’s going to be terrible” –

The conundrum of a verified account also applies to government officials, charities and news media companies.

The White House, which will retain its special designation as a government entity, has already told its employees that its staff’s official Twitter profiles should not have a blue checkmark, Axios reports.

News media companies, corporations and charities already lost their blue ticks and were marked as verified business accounts in Musk’s new system.

According to Twitter’s website, these cost $1,000 per month in the US and $50 for each additional account.

“This is terrible for those who can’t afford the new fees,” said Andrew Stroehlein, European media director for Human Rights Watch, who said his group would not pay for the privilege.

“It hurts the effectiveness of grassroots activists, including human rights activists who have long used Twitter for grassroots organizing,” he added in a blog post.

The New York Times said it doesn’t pay for a verified business account and that it orders reporters to get a blue tick only when necessary for reporting needs.

The “pay to play” verification model is also being tested by Twitter’s competitor Facebook in Australia and New Zealand, which has also received a lot of criticism.

Much depends on Musk’s ability to find a business model for Twitter.

Last week, Musk valued Twitter at $20 billion today, less than half of the $44 billion he paid for the social media platform just five months ago.

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