When Elon Musk took over Twitter in a mammoth $44-billion deal on October 28 last month, everyone knew that the world’s digital town square will see a massive transformation. From the mega layoffs to some stringent new working rules, the world’s richest man made one thing very clear – that Twitter was losing money and he is here to stop that and make the micro-blogging platform a profitable venture.
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As part of the fresh initiative to generate a new stream of revenue, Musk launched the Twitter Blue subscription for everyone. In simple terms, it means that anyone can get the ‘verified’ blue check mark in her/his Twitter profile if the person subscribes to this service. The idea, as said by the Tesla boss was, to democratise the verification process. All looked cool till things became very, very chaotic last week.
In what can be best described as a mayhem for both the investors and general Twitter users, there was a spate of new ‘fake’ verified accounts saying some very unflattering things. Sample this – Nestle talking about abuse of natural resources or Lockheed Martin talking about human rights conditions in Saudi Arabia. The most startling impact of the Twitter Blue mayhem was probably felt by pharma giant Eli Lilly. An account impersonating the drug company said that ‘insulin would be free now’. Several market reports said that the pharma giant lost billions in market capitalization due to this trouble with Twitter.
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The intention behind opening up the $8 subscription for everyone was to stop the trend of fake accounts, spam on Twitter. On the contrary, the service resulted in an unimaginable deluge of fake accounts of mega corporations, public personalities and even politicians. The Twitter Blue made George W Bush talk about Iraq. Even Tesla wasn’t spared. Other companies that faced the brunt of the imposters included Pepsi and SpaceX among others.
All this forced the new Twitter boss to halt the subscription service for now. Latest reports suggest that the service has disappeared from the iOS app. Some Twitter users who have already paid for the official badge have complained that the check mark is missing from their profiles. The Twitter Blue rollback is yet another headache for Musk who is struggling with keeping the staff motivated amid massive layoffs, keeping advertisers invested and compliance with the FTC decree.
