Why Twitter Should Pay Us For Blue Checkmarks
I have never considered myself to be a creative person. When I left grammar school, I was told I would be put in an advanced math class the following year. I barely got a passing grade when I took an art class in high school.
People described as left-brain thinkers are said to have strong math and logic skills. On the other hand, those who are described as right-brain thinkers are said to have talents more on the creative side of things. Indeed, I am left-brained, so being in a tech business and working as an industry analyst suits me well.
I wish I had a right-brain mentality as I love the arts, specifically artists and their creations.
In my travels, I have gazed upon some of the world’s great artworks at the Louvre in Paris, sculptures in the Vatican and Florence, and great art in the Orient. As I look at these marvelous works of art, I see creativity at its highest level and marvel at the artistic talent behind them. However, when I return to earth, I am reminded that I can barely create a stick figure properly, and my talents lie elsewhere.
But in this era of AI, I am a serious creator. Over my 40 years in tech, I have written at least one story or column weekly for publications like ABC News, Fortune, Time Magazine, Fast Company, PC Mag, etc. Add to that the many posts I make on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. In addition, I constantly create content for the worldwide databases that artificial intelligence scrapes to provide the answers to user prompts.
If you have ever written a blog, created a web page, taken part in a Reddit thread, or contributed any content to Facebook, Twitter, or other public websites, your words have contributed to the education of AI chatbots everywhere. Any breakthrough in AI could not happen without the contributions everyone has made to these “digital” databases and providing AI engines the material it uses to offer AI-based solutions.
If you contribute to Twitter, you create content that allows it to exist. Therefore, Twitter’s new owner asking us to pay a fee for the verified Blue Checkmark is galling and onerous to most of its users who have helped build this site and made it successful.
Last week Elon Musk removed verified Blue Checkmarks from millions of Twitter contributors. Notice that I call them contributors, not users. This policy is a slap in the face to Twitter posters and could lead to millions of false accounts.
One major national publication last week had their site highjacked by someone who claimed they were the actual site of this publisher. The legitimate publisher had to immediately refute that site and try to get it removed from Twitter.
Given these new rules, I suspect this will happen a lot. This is bound to sow more confusion and mistrust about Twitter’s contributors if anyone can steal a person’s identity at any time. Going into a significant political season in the U.S., Twitter is even riper for false accounts, which will pay for a Blue Checkmark, even if they are not a voice of a public figure running for office or a national group representing either side of the political spectrum.
Unless Elon Musk reverses this policy and works hard to ensure the person posting is the actual person or organization behind the Tweet, Twitter will become even less trustworthy and most likely cause great havoc in our upcoming election year.
Let’s be clear on what is happening with Twitter, though. Since Musk bought Twitter, its value has decreased by 50% from what he paid in 2022. He has lost major advertisers who no longer believe Twitter is a trusted site and don’t want their brand to be associated with Twitter. Charging for the Blue Checkmark is a way to recoup some of the lost revenue made by his mistakes in managing Twitter since he purchased it. But in doing so, he is telling his users that they are only valuable to Twitter if they subscribe to the Blue Checkmark. This strategy makes Twitter less reliable and open to even greater havoc in the social media world.
As one who has supported Twitter from its beginning and especially relied on it as a news source, Twitter has devolved into a site with less oversight and control that devalues its users. This is not a formula for success.
