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Billionaire Elon Musk's plan to charge for Twitter accounts with blue ticks has taken place, causing many famous people like Beyonce and former President Trump to be "disappeared".
Under Elon Musk's ownership, Twitter has changed the way it provides blue ticks. Photo: AFP
Reuters reported on April 20 that many celebrity Twitter accounts have lost the blue checkmark that authenticates their identities and distinguishes them from other impersonators. The “bluebird” social network currently has about 300,000 people with a verified blue checkmark, including many politicians, journalists, athletes, actors and public figures.
After many announcements, Twitter has begun to make good on its promise to remove the blue ticks from accounts that do not pay a monthly fee to maintain them.
Notably, famous users immediately affected include singer Beyonce, Pope Francis, veteran talk show host Oprah Winfrey and former US President Donald Trump.
The cost to maintain storage ranges from $8/month for individual users to starting at $1,000/month for organizational users, or an additional $50/month for each affiliate or employee account.
Several celebrities, including basketball star LeBron James, director Stephen King and filmmaker William Shatner, have expressed skepticism about paying Twitter fees, but still retained their green checkmarks after the April 20 audit. Director Stephen King, for example, said he has not yet paid.
“My Twitter account says I signed up for Twitter Blue. I didn’t. My Twitter account says I provided a phone number. I didn’t,” King wrote.
Responding to King's tweet, Twitter boss Elon Musk said: "You are welcome." And in another tweet, billionaire Musk said he was paying for some personal accounts like the three characters King, Shatner and James.
It’s not just celebrities and journalists who have gone missing. Government agencies, nonprofits, and public service accounts around the world have lost their verification, raising concerns that Twitter could lose its status as a platform for accurate, up-to-date information from trusted sources, even in times of emergency.
While Twitter offers a gold checkmark for verified organizations and a gray checkmark for government organizations and their affiliates, it’s unclear how the platform will implement it. The checkmark has yet to appear on many previously verified government and public service accounts.
Twitter has also started displaying labels like “state-linked” and “automated by” on accounts to show when an account is linked to a government or is a chatbot.
In another development, in an interview with BBC (UK) on April 11, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that since the end of last year, the company has laid off more than 6,000 employees, equivalent to about 80% of Twitter's total employees.
Specifically, at this time, Twitter only has about 1,500 employees. Before being acquired by billionaire Elon Musk, Twitter had 7,800 employees. Mr. Musk also revealed that brands cutting advertising on this platform caused Twitter's revenue to plummet.
In percentage terms, Twitter’s workforce reductions are incomparable to other major tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, which have cut tens of thousands of employees worldwide. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (USA), Twitter is currently facing a series of lawsuits and legal actions brought by former employees of this social network.
According to Tin Tuc Newspaper
