The Facts
In a tweet on Tuesday, new Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed plans to charge users to retain their verified status and their blue checkmark for a monthly fee.
Musk reportedly gave his employees a Nov. 7 deadline to create the new paid verification shortly after completing his $44B purchase of the company last week.
The Spin
Narrative B
If Musk goes through with this plan, it’ll contradict everything he has said in the past about wanting to eliminate all bots and fake accounts. The blue checkmark is the ultimate means of determining real from fake information, but misinformation will spread like wildfire if Twitter can’t get everyone to pay for their verification.
Narrative A
In order to survive and thrive, Twitter has to become less reliant on ads, and a subscription service would be an excellent revenue source. Despite initial backlash from some of the site’s bigger users, a paid-subscription model could bolster Twitter Blue’s popularity because there would be clear requirements for getting a blue checkmark, thus making it more widely available.
