Once upon a time there was a blue badge that served to differentiate “ordinary” Twitter users from the most relevant people in our society. Whether it was due to their popularity, relevance, or position, certain individuals had a verified symbol next to their names on Twitter that allowed them to be identified and prevented other users from impersonating them.
But one day, a South African billionaire bought Twitter after one of the biggest internet feuds in history and decided that everyone had the right to have their own verification. By paying, of course. Elon Musk, in a desperate attempt to monetize a deficit social network for which he had paid much more than he should, overnight eliminated the verifications granted before his arrival and destroyed a system that, although it could be improved, worked.
For fans of Elon Musk, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and scammers (sometimes the same people), their eyes lit up. And it’s not just a pretty badge, it also puts you higher in tweet replies, allows you to create ads on the platform, and gives you greater visibility in the For You feed. After this, a tsunami of fake accounts, various snake oil sellers, and scammers completely flooded Twitter, filling our feeds with spam, bots, and cryptocurrency scams.
The rest of the story you already know: the blue brand lost its prestige and those users who, for work reasons, needed the visibility provided by Twitter verification, had to accept it, paying for it and enduring the embarrassment of having it. Faced with this situation, Musk, who wanted people to continue paying for the service (for any reason), decided to give verified users the option to hide the blue badge, so they could enjoy its benefits without the negative image it carried.
But that has changed as of this week, since, all of a sudden (once again), Elon Musk has decided to eliminate this option, making all the people who chose to hide their verification have to display the blue mark at all times. For now, we don’t know why Musk has made this move, although at this point we should perhaps stop looking for rational reasons behind the billionaire’s actions and accept once and for all that he does everything impulsively. We will all be better off, believe me.
