[jdub]

No one who understood verification thought it was a status symbol.

Musk doesn't understand the platform he bought, so he promised to change the existing identify verification system – part of a strategy to combat impersonation and misinformation – to a pay-for-play subscription feature.

But Twitter already has a subscription offering! He's just ruining the verification system out of ignorance and spite.

[kcplate]

> No one who understood verification thought it was a status symbol.

Doesn’t matter what the “in the know” understood, it’s what the blue checks perceived it to be. To them it was a hard to get item that only folks with some degree of “celebrity” received.

[jdub]

But even they didn't view it as a status symbol. A bunch of weird, ignorant, mostly right-leaning jerks did.

[kcplate]

I disagree. It was a wide gamut, not just one political ideology. Just the commentary in the last week shows it was across the board. Fox News personalities to AOC to Steven King to a few other Hollywood celebs bitching about it. Wide range of political leaning, common thread…all celebrities.

[jdub]

They're not "bitching about" more people being verified, they're "bitching about" the wanton, clueless vandalism of the verification system.

[kcplate]

All I see is a bunch of wealthy and famous folks whining that their little badge of exclusivity has become easily obtainable by the masses for the price of a latte.

Boo hoo. Your little blue badge of elitism is now available to the proles, how will you ever cope with such uppityness?

[jdub]

You're projecting your selfish, zero-sum view of the world on other people.

[tsimionescu]

Let's make this simple.

Old blue checkmark: Twitter confirms that this person is who they claim to be. If an account is called DonaldTrump and has a blue checkmark, Twitter confirms it is the account of the former president.

New blue checkmark: Twitter confirms that someone pays 8 dollars every month. If an account is called DonaldTrump and has a blue checkmark, Twitter confirms that someone is paying 8 dollars every month for this account.

So, if you see a tweet from the blue checkmark @DonaldTrump saying "I am running for president", with the new system, you have no idea if the former president has publicly announced he is running again, or if some rando who had 8 dollars to spare wants to make it seem so.