OLIVER DARCY -- Elon Musk has given up, restoring the 鈥渓ords and peasants鈥� blue checkmark system he once admonished and assailed as elitism.
After insisting that journalists, celebrities and other notable users pay him $8 a month for Twitter鈥檚 once-coveted blue checkmark, the erratic billionaire has thrown in the towel, widely restoring blue badges to prominent accounts on the imperiled social media platform.
A number of people 鈥� including yours truly 鈥� woke up on Thursday to learn that X had declared them 鈥渁n influential member of the community鈥� and, thus, would be giving them 鈥渁 complimentary subscription to X Premium.鈥� The message the company sent to those users noted that X 鈥渞eserves the right to cancel the complimentary subscription in its sole discretion.鈥� (Translation: If you鈥檙e mean to Musk, you are likely putting yourself in jeopardy of losing it.)
The move is a major reversal by Musk, who made user payments for the blue checkmark a central tenet of his plan to build a subscription business on X and reduce the platform鈥檚 heavy dependency on advertiser dollars. 鈥淭rash me all day, but it鈥檒l cost $8,鈥� Musk insisted, endlessly repeating a version of that message to the vocal and constant complaints of users.
鈥淭o all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8,鈥� Musk declared.
Musk 鈥� who often uses his perch as the most-followed user on X to share absurd and dangerous right-wing conspiracy theories 鈥� also took glee in stripping journalists of their status. The thin-skinned Musk has repeatedly smeared the press and, when he took over the platform, made it a point to strip journalists of any special cachet they carried, framing it as a move aimed at empowering the masses.
鈥淭witter鈥檚 current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn鈥檛 have a blue checkmark is bullshit,鈥� Musk wrote in November 2022. 鈥淧ower to the people!鈥�
Naturally, users pushed back against his plans, noting that verification of journalists offered the public a helpful way of quickly identifying credible sources of news. In reality, the legacy verification system benefited the average user far more than it benefited those who were given the badges. But Musk, blind or disinterested in that reality, vigorously pushed back.
鈥淵ou represent the problem: journalists who think they are the only source of legitimate information,鈥� Musk wrote to one protesting user. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the big lie.鈥�
鈥淓mpowering the public relative to journalists sure is a great way to earn negative press,鈥� Musk said in another post.
But most journalists and other notable users who once sported the checkmark declined to fork over the cash. Instead, the people willing to shell out money for the status symbol consisted of a cocktail of Musk super-fans, right-wing trolls and others who would not have been able to attain a checkmark under the legacy system which required them to be a notable public figure. (Ironically, a fair continent of this group spent years mocking journalists for supposedly being obsessed with the checkmark, only to pay $8 for it while the journalists declined).
Even worse, trolls impersonating the identities of others were granted blue checkmarks, stripping the symbol of its core value: identity verification.
As a direct result, the once-coveted status symbol lost all its value, instead becoming a toxic sign of obedience and fealty to Musk, which many users rejected. This week, when Musk suddenly appended checkmarks to the accounts of 鈥渋nfluential members of the community,鈥� plenty of users loudly noted that they had not paid for it.
鈥淲hat happened? I didn鈥檛 pay for this. I would NEVER pay for this,鈥� actress Yvette Nicole Brown posted on X.
鈥淪tating for the record I did NOT pay to have my check mark restored,鈥� added the conservative commentator Amanda Carpenter.
A representative for X did not respond to a request for comment on Musk鈥檚 move to restore the blue checkmarks. But it鈥檚 obvious.
Since Musk鈥檚 disastrous takeover of the social media company, the platform has been on a downward spiral. Notably, X鈥檚 daily usage has plummeted over the last year, with the user base down a staggering 23%, according to data Sensor Tower provided NBC News鈥� David Ingram. Daily active users are down an additional 18%, the analytics firm added.
That鈥檚 an alarming trend for the platform, which likes to market itself as the place where live conversation occurs. Meanwhile, Meta鈥檚 X competitor, Threads, continues to show growth, with Mark Zuckerberg telling investors in February that the platform has grown to more than 130 million monthly active users. Zuckerberg has said that his goal is to get Threads to 1 billion users. And other platforms like Mastodon and BlueSky have also become refuges for Twitter exiles.
It all spells trouble for Musk, whose platform continues to descend into an uninhabitable right-wing fever swamp (quite frankly, it already can be fairly defined as such). Don鈥檛 just take my word for it, either. The evidence is plain as day in Musk鈥檚 own public actions. The billionaire has grown so desperate to lure back one-time power users, he is reversing course on what was his rallying cry against the elites.
Gone are the days when Musk poked the journalists and celebrity class about paying him $8 a month. Now, Musk is so desperate to see their return, he鈥檚 willing to crown them with the blue badge and restore their accounts to 鈥渓ord鈥� status. That says it all.
