(NewsGlobal.com)- Twitter’s new $ 8-a-month subscription service was scheduled to go into effect over the weekend. But on Sunday, the New York Times reported that the service’s roll-out was delayed until after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
On Saturday, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk announced the launch of the $8 monthly subscription plan that includes receiving the same blue checkmark once reserved for Twitter users whose identity was verified.
The purpose behind introducing blue-check verified accounts in 2009 was to prevent impersonations of high-profile users like politicians, celebrities, and journalists. To receive a blue check after a name, a user had to verify his identity by providing an ID card and phone number.
But now, with Musk unveiling the $8 subscription, the blue checkmark has been rendered utterly meaningless.
When the new subscription service launched on Wednesday, there were some, let’s just say, problems.
Within no time, Twitter was inundated with newly-minted blue-check accounts that were masquerading as someone else, including basketball star LeBron James and former President George W. Bush.
Within a matter of hours, Twitter had its hands full, hunting down and permanently suspending all the unverified “blue-check” accounts that just paid them $8 to get the blue check in the first place.
Why bother adding a blue checkmark to a user’s account if the user’s identity has not been verified?
Elon Musk said recently that Twitter’s mission is to become “the most accurate source of information.”
Yeah, good luck with that, Elon.
Unless Twitter makes significant changes to its new $8 subscription service, Musk will have a hard time fulfilling that mission.
Twitter can either require verification of identity to sign up for the subscription service, or it can find another way to identify subscribers that doesn’t include the use of the verified blue checkmark.
Until Musk does that, the chaos and confusion will only get worse as the subscription service grows.
