The laptop screen displays the Twitter homepage with the Dogecoin digital currency symbol instead of the Twitter logo.
Andreas Arnold/Image Coalition via Getty Images
The siren was more like a moan.
As verified Twitter users braced for the Elon Musk-run social media company to begin removing verification badges en masse over the weekend, the Twitter product team seemed focused on something else entirely: replacing Monday’s Twitter blue bird icon with a Shiba Inu icon. , the dog associated with the Doge meme and Dogecoin cryptocurrency.
Doge Twitter is emblematic of Musk’s chaotic and unfocused power over Twitter, where features are rolled out randomly with little or no notice, select organizations like New York times They are penalized (eg, losing their checkmarks) on a whim based on Musk’s disproportionate standards and basic site functionality — remember when users couldn’t even tweet? – Not given. Regardless of “As I promisedA tweet from Elon, the company never officially acknowledged why it embraced the Doge as a symbol, leaving it another random moment in the Musk era.
A bloodbath that wasn’t likely because there’s no way for Twitter to remove verification badges en masse, e.g Washington Post mentioned. In a since-deleted tweet on April 2, Musk said he would give “a few weeks grace” to verified users to sign up for Twitter Blue “unless they tell them they won’t pay now, as we will remove [their verification badges],” which is what it looks like with New York timesmain account. (Representative of times It did not respond to requests for comment on whether the outlet saw a decrease in engagement or access after losing its verified status.)
But as of early this week, most of the verified users have kept their badges, with many expressing no interest in paying for Twitter Blue, the $8-a-month subscription service that will verify any user with a phone number and offer other perks like a drop in ads and a boost Visibility across the platform. If anything, the Twitter Blue subscription has become somewhat of a crimson A on the social platform for some, with some longtime users even begging for their blue checks to be removed and 39,000 users following an account sharing tools on how to get rid of and block Twitter Blue subscribers.
If Musk was also counting on celebrities and top creators to absorb the $8 monthly fee for protecting their verified status, he thought he was wrong. “I’m not paying for a blue check. That money can (and will) go toward my extra hot lattes,” she says. chirp Dionne Warwick.
On the organizational side, major publications such as New York timesAnd Washington Post And the Los Angeles Times They all said they wouldn’t pay a $1,000-a-month fee to join Twitter’s Verified Enterprises service, which gives business accounts a gold verification badge and adds an affiliate badge (a smaller version of the main account’s profile picture) to their affiliate accounts. If this is confusing to read, it’s because it’s: a visual nightmare of badges next to badges, and they all mean something close to nothing now.
It’s a pay-per-play strategy that hasn’t had much success for the cash-strapped company, as roughly 3.6 percent of verified users have signed up for Twitter Blue, according to one. appreciation From software developer Travis Browne, who has been tracking changes to users’ verification states. (Twitter has not publicly released the number of Twitter Blue subscribers.) And those who offer to pay tend to have fewer followers on the platform, with about 49.1% of Twitter Blue subscribers having fewer than 1,000 followers, based on Brown’s analysis.
separate Stady Web analytics firm LikeWeb found that of the 2.6 million people who checked the Twitter Blue sales page on their desktop in March, 116,000 — or about 4.5 percent — signed up for the subscription.
Perhaps as an attempt to disguise the low adoption numbers, Twitter also rolled out updated language on Monday to indicate that those with verification badges either signed up for Twitter Blue or were legacy accounts; Previously, users were able to select Twitter Blue subscribers versus the old user.
For his part, Musk didn’t address the elephant in the room: Few longtime users seem to say they’d pay for Twitter Blue. Instead, the Mercurial CEO spent the day laughing at his own jokes, sharing recycled meme after recycled meme.
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”