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Twitter claims dead celebs are subscribing to Blue from beyond the grave
- dingusdew 4y ago[dead]
- lapcat 4y agoTo me it seems obvious that this was in response to the BlockTheBlue campaign. A number of high-profile accounts with over a million followers, @dril for example, were telling people to block every blue checkmark. Forcing blue checkmarks back on these high-profile accounts put an end to the BlockTheBlue campaign, because then they can't say "you should block me".
- dragonwriter 4y agoWell, it shifted it from “Block the Blue” to “I’m not actually paying for this shit” from the falsely-labelled “subscribers” (well, except the dead ones, who are pretty quiet about it), with a possible side order of legal action for the Lanham Act violations (and if the Disney Junior UK mistake of gifting false “verified organization” status to a parody account of a real brand isn’t an isolated incident, possibly some additional legal fun…) Actually, the first part isn’t even true; lots of the “Block the Blue” types given Blue are still doing Block the Blue (and leveraging the “changing your display name when you have Blue suspends your checkmark” policy, too.) But they’ve added “I’m not actually paying for this shit” on top of “block the blue”.
- hezralig 4y agoNo it did not.
- rideontime 4y agoHas it put an end to the campaign, though? People are just changing their display names to get rid of the dreaded white checkmark on blue background.
- dragonwriter 4y agoIn their rush to create false endorsers for their various verification routes, they also gave “verified organization” status (which has an official price of $1,000 to apply which isn’t refunded if rejected, and supposedly involves significant vetting) to a fake Disney account: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35687666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35687666
- mrozbarry 4y agoRegardless of your opinion on Elon, I don't see the issue. I'd even argue that re-adding the checkmark to dead celebrates is actually respectful, since they are unable to subscribe but they are official accounts who historically were "verified."
- AlexandrB 4y agoThis makes sense in isolation, but the way that Elon has approached managing Twitter has turned the verified status into a symbol of allegiance with one side or another. So now being verified doesn't just communicate something about your account, but about your political ideology and whether you agree with Elon's decisions or not. It's this aspect that's a bit of an ethical hot potato here.
- mrozbarry 4y agoI'm not confident about the entire statement you're making. Paying $8 does not equate to agreeing with Elon or what side of politics you sit, paying $8 only equates to whether or not you want a blue "verified" checkmark. I really hate this culture of "cancel person X" and if you use anything "person X" has made, your a racist/bigot/whatever. This whole blue check politic statement you are making is a strawman.
- AlexandrB 4y agoLike it or not, Musk has worked hard at tying Twitter to his personal brand since he took over. Consider that Twitter has no PR department outside of Elon himself. It's not as closely tied as something like Tesla, but still if you don't like Elon or his politics you're less likely to pay for verification. This means that the checkmark now has an associated political/social connotation. No it's not 100%, but it's there. Edit: This applies in reverse as well. There are definitely fans/admirers of Elon who subscribed immediately as a show of support. But I admit all of this is anecdata, I don't have numbers on how widespread it is.
- hgsgm 4y agoThe checkmark means "paid $8", not "verified".
- wanabananascene 4y agoJust move platforms. I do not understand all of the debates, don't like it? Don’t use it. Simple.
- cogman10 4y agoWhat a terrible idea for monetization. The entire point of the blue checkmark was "this account with a high-profile person's/company's name is actually who they say they are". Turning it into "everyone gets a checkmark that wants one" has destroyed the value of the checkmark. It is, at best, a suckers badge at this point.
- birdyrooster 4y agoMy understanding is Elon never cared about the institution of a blue check mark and is taking them for a nice infusion of cash with the intention of phasing it out.
- hgsgm 4y agoIf he's that desperate for money why would he phase it out?
- birdyrooster 4y agoThis over-exploitation is a clear fulcrum for the failure of the platform and could undermine a future payday.
- Pxtl 4y agoThis is enshittification - pillage the brand for short-term gain, long-term loss, thinking that something is worth more dead than alive. Either Musk is trying to pillage the bluecheck system (he thinks its' worthless and wants to extract some value before he kills it), or Twitter itself (get some short-term revenue from blue-check-chuds so he can make the site look slightly more profitable so he can sell it off).
- rchaud 4y agoBut at $8/mo? Celebrities and influencers can afford way more than that. $8/mo is the price range that attracts scammers and hustlers that care about showing up in the first 5 replies of a major tweet so they can spam their product to a large audience.
- AzzieElbab 4y ago[flagged]
- ohgodplsno 4y agoThere's something about murdered-by-saudis Kashoggi getting a forced blue mark on owned-by-saudis Twitter just so Musk can jerk himself off, but I can't quite place my finger on how utterly fucked it is.
- jojobaskins 4y ago[flagged]
- rchaud 4y agoAbsolute amateur hour. Like two sets of internet messageboard warriors trying to get one over the other. Only in this case, one of these warriors is the CEO!
- netsharc 4y agoIt's more fun when you know the other guy is invested in winning the argument to the tune of $44 billion...
- bacchusracine 4y agoHow is this any different from Disney resurrecting the corpse of Stan Lee to advertise Marvel movies he never had any part in years after his death?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- diebeforei485 4y agoWho cares if people get their blue checks restored?
- jojobaskins 4y ago[flagged]