Overseas celebrities and the White House refuse to charge Twitter Blue for authenticated badges, pointing out that there is no longer any meaning to have authenticated badges



From April 1, 2023 (Saturday), Twitter will remove the blue ``authenticated badge'' displayed next to the account name from users who have not subscribed to

Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service. . However, athletes, celebrities, the White House, etc. who already have millions of followers have refused to pay Twitter Blue $ 8 a month (about 1100 yen) to maintain the authenticated badge, saying, 'Authenticated It has also been pointed out that badges no longer have the meaning of identity verification.

Scoop: White House won't pay for Twitter verification
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/31/twitter-verification-white-house-biden-check-mark



Twitter's Verification Fee Sparks Backlash From LeBron James, Celebrities - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-31/twitter-s-verification-fee-sparks-backlash-from-lebron-james-celebrities

Without Verification, What Is the Point of Elon Musk's Twitter? | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/03/what-made-pre-elon-musk-twitter-relevant

Celebrities don't want to pay Elon for a blue check | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/31/celebrity-blue-check-twitter-verification/

In 2009, Twitter launched a system called Verified Account, which verifies that an account is genuine, in response to a lawsuit filed by MLB Cardinals manager Tony La Russa , claiming that ``Twitter has neglected fake accounts''. has been introduced. In 2016, a request system that allows each user to apply for a certified badge has appeared, and many celebrities, politicians, and journalists have obtained certified badges.

However, Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in 2022, said, ``Twitter's verified badge is bullshit.'' After that, Twitter started a system to give authenticated badges with Twitter Blue, a paid subscription service, so that anyone can acquire an authenticated badge by paying a monthly fee and joining Twitter Blue.

And from April 1, 2023, it was announced that the verified badge will be stripped from accounts that have not subscribed to Twitter Blue, which had acquired the verified badge through the old verification process. In addition, since it is difficult to securely delete all authenticated badges at once, it is said that there is a grace period of several weeks to delete the authenticated badges.

Twitter Blue will be available worldwide and from April 1, the blue check mark will be removed from authenticated accounts that have not joined Twitter Blue - GIGAZINE



Increasing the number of Twitter Blue subscribers is important for improving Twitter's revenue, but some celebrities have refused to charge Twitter Blue. NBA player LeBron James , who has more than 50 million followers, tweeted, 'Well, my blue check mark will be gone soon. You know I'm not paying for something that's funny. from,” he tweeted.



Actor William Shatner , who has more than 2.5 million followers, tweeted, ``Do you have to pay for what you gave me for free?'' And criticized Mr. Mask.



2022 Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes tweeted that he would have to pay $8 a month to keep his verified badge, saying, 'I have to feed my kids. …” he joked.



In the first place, it is pointed out that the authenticated badge no longer makes sense for identity verification because anyone can get it by paying a fee to Twitter Blue. American social activist Monica Lewinsky reported that her eponymous account has a verified badge.



Also, rapper Ice Spice tweeted that the fact that the account has more than 1 million followers is proof that the account is real, even without a verified badge.



Overseas media Axios said in an email sent to staff by White House digital strategy director Rob Flaherty, ``We understand that Twitter Blue does not offer personal-level authentication as a service. The check mark is simply proof that the user is a paying user, ”notifying that the White House has no intention of obtaining a certified badge. Although it is possible for the staff to join Twitter Blue by themselves, the fee is self-funded.

The New York Times also stated that it had no intention of paying Twitter to get the verified badge, and when informed by the user, Musk said, 'Okay, let's remove the verified badge. ' is reacting .

The New York Times announces unwillingness to pay for maintaining Twitter's verified badge - GIGAZINE



At the time of writing the article, the authenticated badge of the New York Times official Twitter account was gone.



The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends freedom of speech in the digital space, once pointed out that Twitter has become an important source of information for news organizations by granting authenticated badges only to prominent users who have verified their identities. However, he said that Twitter's usefulness and superiority over other platforms were lost as the only qualification to obtain an authenticated badge was credit card billing.

According to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, Twitter is considering measures to waive the monthly fee for verified badges for the top 500 advertisers and organizations with the top 10,000 followers. In addition, a new verification system 'Verified Organizations' that gives users belonging to an organization a special logo badge for 'sports teams, news organizations, financial institutions, companies belonging to the Fortune 500, non-profit organizations, etc.' increase.

Twitter requires a monthly fee of 130,000 yen to acquire an organizational user's authenticated badge, but the top 500 advertisers and the top 10,000 followers of the ``traditional authenticated badge-acquired organization'' are exempt from payment-GIGAZINE



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