Things are settling down at Twitter after Elon Musk paid a whopping $44 billion to take full control of the micro-blogging behemoth and threw a wrecking ball at the company’s heart, firing its core staff and telling the remaining to prepare for “extreme hardcore” work.
“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk said in a letter to staff. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”
The move shocked many, with some predicting Twitter’s demise and Musk’s massive loss–money, they say, could have been better spent ending world hunger.
But slowly, things are coming together for Twitter 2.0, from Musk’s politically incorrect tweets to the reinstatement of once-banned-right-wing personalities to a Twitter that appears to have figured out a path forward.
A mix of crazy, fun, WTH! and let’s wait and see.
In a Twitter Spaces interview, Musk said the new Twitter would keep trying new things and make many mistakes before getting it right. He aims to improve the product and make it fun and more productive for users.
His primary focus is getting users to buy into an $8 subscription, which would generate much-needed revenue and reduce reliance on advertisements.
Here comes Twitter Blue Subscription
After a false launch in November that Wired Magazine described as “a scammer’s paradise” ended disastrously with the impersonation of several brand accounts, Musk’s Twitter has announced some sort of a breakthrough relaunching the standard.
While it opens an opportunity for all eligible users to subscribe, there are a few tweaks affecting those already having the checkmark.
Any profile changes on a previously verified Twitter account would temporarily lose the blue checkmark to allow for a review.
“To minimize confusion and promote integrity on the platform, changes to your profile photo, display name, or username (@handle) will result in a temporary loss of the blue checkmark until your account is validated as continuing to meet our requirements. No further changes to your profile photo, display name, or username will be allowed during this review period,” Twitter said in a series of Tweets posted on December 13.
Already verified through the old process? You won’t lose your blue checkmark at this time.
However, all accounts with blue checkmarks that change their display name or profile photo will lose their check until their account can be reviewed. https://t.co/wHBWDQQRh5
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 12, 2022
At the same time, Twitter also announced the resumption of Twitter Blue— the subscription model of Twitter— which includes several unique features and advantages for building customer value.
“We’re baaaack! Twitter Blue is now available for $8/month on the web or $11/month on iOS,” Twitter Blue tweeted.
According to CNBC, subscribing through iOS costs $3 more is a reflection of Musk’s beef with Apple’s 30 percent cut of all digital sales through the apps.
The coveted blue checkmark, a one-time symbol of authenticity doled out to celebrities, politicians, and notable accounts, separated regular users and the elite. Musk said he did not favor the criteria because it created a hierarchy system and relegated a vast majority of Twitter users to a peasant class.
He brought the new subscription system, where one would get the blue checkmark or a form of verification after paying a fee using their credit card.
The credit card, he said, would weed out bots, but still, some saw problems on the horizon, with people wondering if Musk was rushing through the process without giving it a thorough thought.
But with time, it appears Twitter has settled on a workable criterion to distribute the marker.
Twitter says Twitter Blue has some upgrades and improvements designed to give the user a more personalized experience. Subscribers of Twitter Blue will get access to features such as editing a tweet within 30 minutes of posting it, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark. These features will only be available after one’s account has been reviewed. But it’s unclear what the review entails.
In addition to the added navigation features, the subscribers with the blue checkmark will get priority ranking in searches, mentions, and replies to help lower the visibility of scams, spam, and bots.
In order to qualify for a Twitter Blue subscription, an account must be at least 90 days old and have an actual and confirmed phone number.
Additionally, the account must display a name, profile photo, and activity in the past 30 days.
Other requirements are the account should have no recent changes to its profile photo, display name, or username.
Accounts with misleading or deceptive profiles and content are ineligible for a Twitter Blue subscription.
As a result of this change, Twitter said it would no longer accept applications for the blue Verification checkmarks under the previous criteria— which took ‘active,’ ‘notable,’ and ‘authentic’ to be the paramount consideration factors.
Henceforth, as things are now, only accounts actively subscribed to Twitter Blue are eligible to receive the blue checkmark. However, Twitter Support has said that the accounts verified in the old way would retain their verification checkmark.
“Already verified through the old process? You won’t lose your blue checkmark at this time. However, all accounts with blue checkmarks that change their display name or profile photo will lose their check until their account can be reviewed,” Twitter tweeted.
The company added that it’s introducing different verification checkmarks for the previously verified accounts and the Blue Twitter ones.
“We’re adding more account distinctions. Gold checkmarks will appear on verified, official businesses on Twitter. And soon, grey checkmarks will appear on government and multilateral accounts,” Twitter posted.
In the new verification process, accounts that receive the blue checkmark as part of a Twitter Blue subscription will not undergo review to confirm that they meet the active, notable, and authentic criteria used in the previous process.