Many Twitter accounts that were verified before Elon Musk bought the platform will soon lose the coveted blue checkmarks that were once handed out for free, according to Musk, as the U.S.’ richest man continues to tinker with his $44 billion social media platform.
Replying to a tweet criticizing the controversial, $8 per month Twitter Blue service that allows paying users to receive a checkmark, Musk wrote Friday afternoon: “Legacy blue checks will be removed soon. Those are the ones that are truly corrupt.”
Musk’s “corrupt” assertion is a clear nod to Twitter’s verification method prior to his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform in October, a process that verified hosts of public figures, such as government officials, celebrities and journalists, for free.
Musk is worth $188 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates, $23 billion less than the world’s richest man Bernard Arnault and $68 billion more than the U.S.’ second-wealthiest Jeff Bezos. More than half of his fortune is thanks to his stake in Tesla, the electric vehicle company he also leads as CEO.
In his four months in charge of Twitter, Musk has made several polarizing changes to the company and the site in an effort to cut costs and rid the company of what Musk has described as a liberal bias in content moderation. The new Twitter Blue product has resulted in several notable mishaps in which users impersonated celebrities and businesses, including a November fiasco in which a newly-verified Twitter Blue user pretended to be pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and said the company would soon offer free insulin. In addition to Twitter Blue users, the Musk Twitter regime has also verified certain government and business accounts, but may soon charge companies $1,000 to retain their gold checkmarks, the Information reported.
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Musk recently fired a Twitter engineer who told him slumping engagement on his tweets was due to a decline in the billionaire’s popularity, Platformer reported Thursday.