What do the Pope, Donald Trump and Beyoncé have in common? As of today, all three on Twitter have lost the blue ticks that were once symbols of trust, until the platform implements Elon Musk’s threat and removes ticks from non-payers.

Twitter began to rapidly change its appearance once accounts began to lose the blue tick they had acquired after verifying the user’s identity and based on some more certification conditions.

Thus, the tick disappeared from the accounts of famous people such as Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, but mainly from the accounts of thousands of academics, journalists, activists. Even @jack, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey lost the tick on his account.

On the political side, many elected officials also lost the blue tick, but some of them gained the gray tick, reserved for the accounts of governments and certain organizations. It is the case of Kevin McCarthy, the head of the Republicans in the House of Representatives.

“Please, namaste”

Now, the blue tick only indicates users who agreed to pay the $8 every month to Elon Musk securing certain technical privileges and advantages of Twitter Blue. Donald Trump and the Dalai Lama are among them.

“I know I’m going to get criticized for having the blue tick, but that’s okay, I need the button to edit my tweets,” wrote Marques Brownlee, a content creator with 6 million followers.

Others did not hide their surprise. Like author Stephen King, with 7 million followers.

“My Twitter account says I’m a Twitter Blue subscriber. It is a lie. My Twitter account says I gave my phone number (for identification). It’s a lie,” he wrote on his account yesterday.

“Please, namaste,” answered Elon Musk.

The owner of the platform made it known in another tweet that he “personally pays some subscriptions”.

Media: remove the gray ticks…one by one

Amidst the confusion, another change linked to the new “certification” system came into effect today: the labels “state-related” and “government-sponsored” were removed today from the pages of major media outlets, after first American public radio NPR led the way by quitting Twitter in protest last week.

Many journalistic organizations that had the symbol of “state-linked media”, independent Western media, but also state-controlled media of regimes such as Russia and China, among others, no longer have it on their accounts.

In addition to US radio network NPR and Canada’s CBC, for example, China’s state news agency Xinhua and Russia’s RT no longer carry the badge as of 0600 GMT.

“State-funded and independent news organizations such as the BBC in the UK and NPR in the US are not defined as state-affiliated media,” Twitter clarified in its support center.

“Media linked to a State is defined as media whose journalistic content is controlled by that State through financial resources, or political pressure directly or indirectly and/or the imposition of control over production and distribution,” Twitter’s support center reads. .

Many Western media outlets, starting with NPR last week or the Swedish public radio network Sveriges Radio (SR) this week, decided to leave Elon Musk’s platform in protest of the policy imposed on Twitter by Elon Musk.

4/20

“Twitter verified,” the Twitter Blue subscription account, had warned since Wednesday that the platform would on Thursday remove blue ticks acquired before Elon Musk bought the company at the end of October, imposing his “paradoxical” vision and reverse the philosophy of certification.

“To remain Twitter certified, users can subscribe to Twitter Blue here,” it read.

Yesterday’s date is no accident: April 20 is 4/20 in English, synonymous with cannabis in the US. And the boss of Tesla and SpaceX has a stereotypical attachment to the plates on the subject. Besides, he bought the platform at the price of “54.20” dollars per share…

“Power to the people”…chaos and confusion

Elon Musk went through forty waves to launch Twitter Blue, causing confusion and cacophony. In November he declared that he wanted to “give more power to the people” and “abolish the current system of landlords and peasants, which separates those who have the blue tick and those who have not.”

Initially, Musk had stated that tweets from those without the bell tick would be treated as spam and placed in a folder where they would be available for anyone to read…

As a result, between November and January, half of the top 30 advertisers on Twitter stopped buying advertising space, according to Pathmatics.

Companies are reluctant to spend money on a platform where “chaos, arbitrary changes and uncertainty reign,” explains Insider Intelligence’s Jasmine Enberg, who predicts Twitter’s revenue will drop 28% this year. And the analyst believes Twitter Blue’s subscriptions won’t fill the gap.

“The blue tick is no longer a ‘credibility token’ since anyone can pay to get it,” he says.