Much of the media is having a meltdown over Twitter’s proposal to charge users for a Blue Check verified account.
Here’s a quote from a Bloomberg news column:
The plan to distinguish users along financial lines will weaken Twitter and increase the divide between between the haves and the have nots.
Source: Elon Musk $8 Blue Tick Subscription Will Divide Twitter – Bloomberg
Reality – Twitter’s blue check program is currently reserved for the elite. Here are the rules they’ve used to determine if you could get a blue check:
Notable
Your account must represent or otherwise be associated with a prominently recognized individual or brand, in line with the notability criteria described below. In addition to confirming the identity of the controller of the account, Twitter will Verify the following types of accounts based on the criteria described. In all categories, Twitter may independently confirm qualifying affiliation through business partnerships or direct outreach. For each category we may request the following type of information to confirm notability:
- News Coverage: Provide news articles that are about or reference yourself or your organization multiple times in the article. These articles must be from Verified news organizations and cannot be a blog or self-published content. Some categories may require you to submit articles that reference or link to your or your organization’s Twitter handle in addition to referring to you or your organization.
- Google Trends: Provide a link to a profile on Google Trends that depicts search history and is linked to the category in which you are applying
- Wikipedia: Provide a link to a stable Wikipedia article about you or your organization that meets the encyclopedia’s notability standards
- Other industry specific references: Depending on the category, we may ask for more industry specific references such as a link to an IMDB page for entertainment.
- Follower or Mention Count: If your account is detected to be in the top .05% follower or mention count for your geographic location, it may count towards notability evidence for certain categories.
Source: Twitter Verification requirements – how to get the blue check
Twitter’s Blue Check program has always been an elite club, available only to the global elite.
The rest of us be damned. Eliminating this private club is deemed an afront to equality! This tells us much about the media – who sees themselves to be elite.
The column author Tim Culpan, has his elite Blue Check – he seems to recognized in his column that this system isn’t that fair either – is a paid verification system any worse or better?
He reports for Bloomberg, from Taipei, Taiwan, on Asian business topics. He has been a speaker at events in multiple southeast Asian countries. He is a globalized elite. He gets his Blue Check for free based on the first of Twitter’s qualification rules – anyone who is mentioned often in the media, as all media are due to their byline, are automatically elite Blue checks. How does this make any sense?
