Elon MuskTwitter’s new owner is weighing radical changes on the social network, sparking a wave of controversy.
Musk has removed the company’s board of directors and appointed himself the sole member, according to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Later, the billionaire tweeted that he was new panel setting is “temporary” but did not release further details.
It also examines the ability of users to pay checking your accounts. An investor who works with Musk posted a poll on Twitter asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue tick that Twitter uses to verify accounts. Musk suggested eight dollars.
“The current system of gentlemen and peasants, with those who have a blue badge and those who don’t, is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8 a month,” said the head of Tesla and SpaceX, who became the new owner of Twitter on Thursday.
Currently, only certain profiles can claim the Blue Authenticity Mark, including but not limited to governments, businesses, media, political, cultural or sports figures. And they can lose their credentials if they don’t follow the platform rules.
But Musk’s plan to charge for verification could backfire.
Read also: Twitter users don’t want to pay for profile verification
Jeff Jarvisa prolific Twitter user who teaches at the CUNY School of Journalism and studies how information travels in the digital age, told NBC News that “every peddler, marketer, and propagandist is going to buy the blue checkmark. And thus completely devalue the blue checkmark. And Musk will no longer have something to sell.”
NBC reminds that according to a study by the Pew Research Center, about a quarter of American adults use Twitter, and its influence may be greater: conversations on the service form the background for political and cultural discussions that dominate the news cycle. every day. Much of their value is owed to their news: statements from companies, celebrities, elected officials and the journalists who follow them. And that value is mostly based on the verification system that the company has built.
In an article published Monday in the British daily New Statesman, James Ballglobal editor of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, spoke about the risk involved in Musk’s plan and recalled that he himself was impersonated by a fake Twitter account before it was confirmed.
Read also: Musk dissolves Twitter’s board of directors and consolidates as sole director
“Without a free way for known accounts to verify that they are real, it would be easier for fake accounts posing as banks, government agencies or well-known individuals to scam innocent users and spread fake news,” he wrote, adding that the absence of limited and free verification, would turn Twitter into “a a hacker’s paradise“.
Some said they would consider subscribing to Twitter, but not for verification.
Marcus Hutchins, a British security researcher, said he would “happily pay for Twitter” but “if it’s about highlighting important accounts, then allowing people to buy verification defeats the point.”
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