For more than two weeks, Elon Musk has taken the helm of the social network Twitter. One of his first steps, signing up for Twitter Blue for $8 a month and being guaranteed a “certified” badge, resulted in chaos on the platform, giving way to fake accounts and misinformation.
A new device that had worried the Twitter teams a lot before its implementation, as revealed by specialized American journalists Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer. In a seven-page report they reviewed, Twitter’s “safety and trust” team had compiled a series of recommendations intended to guide Musk and avoid negative consequences of his plans for Twitter Blue. Among these recommendations, the direct sale of a “certified” credential was listed as a high-risk idea.
confirmed fears
And this is precisely what happened at the time when the paid subscription was implemented. A particularly dense avalanche of fake accounts took over the platform for several days, scaring a certain number of advertisers, but also certain users, who, for example, turned to the Mastodon platform.
The same goes for the removal of “certified” badges that had already been given out for free up until now. This idea, finally abandoned, was viewed with suspicion by the social network team. “Removing privileges and exceptions from verified profiles for free could lead to misunderstandings and loss of trust among these users,” or even encourage them to leave the platform for good. It is also thanks to the report written by this team that people already authenticated as “certified” were able to keep their credential for free.
After realizing the reality of the team’s warnings, Elon Musk finally decided on November 11 to pause paid subscriptions. Not without some collateral damage along the way.
Source: BFM TV
