Twitter Formally Rolls Out Sales Of $8 Check Marks

Bloomberg News reports:

Twitter Inc. has started giving users who sign up for $8 a month a verified check mark, days after owner Elon Musk floated the idea of a new verification system.

“Power to the people,” Twitter said in the version notes for its latest update that was released Saturday. “Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”

Twitter is pushing ahead with its new verification system at a crucial time, with the US due to hold elections on Tuesday. With the new subscription plan, anyone would be able to pay $8 to have their account look more legitimate, adding a risk they could impersonate candidates or government entities.

Read the full article. At this writing, it doesn’t appear that any of the newly-purchased check marks have been applied to accounts.

Sure, I’ll pay US$8/month to help the world’s richest man recover from overpaying for Twitter and alienating advertisers.https://t.co/cmQwUth2bb

— Chua Chin Hon (@chinhon) November 6, 2022

If you don’t pay the $8 your tweets will be suppressed by an algorithm. Not making this shit up he said it to a room of investors yesterday & claimed this would solve hate speech. “You’ll have to scroll really far to see unverified users” pic.twitter.com/gSzXtzFYtC

— Aaron Stewart-Ahn (@somebadideas) November 5, 2022

I can’t wait until Twitter Blue drops and THE PEOPLE have a say!

Specifically the people who are trolls.

Who will now get to credibly impersonate a celebrity for the LOW LOW PRICE of $8/month!!!

— Elon Musk (@emilycrockett) November 5, 2022

i’d at least wait the four days until after midterm elections to roll out a completely untested new verification system on the country’s most important social media site for political info/disinfo.

but hey, that’s just me.

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 5, 2022