The social network X (formerly Twitter)has begun to grant again blue badges (the “blue checks”) free of charge. These brands served the accounts with the greatest influence to show a verification as true or official.
Over the past year and a half, after the tech billionaire Elon Muskbuy the companythe function of the blue insignia had been restricted to users who make a spayment subscription to the application.
Change of idea
The South African-born technology magnate Elon Musk already announced last Thursday that, “in the future”, they expected accounts that have more than 2,500verified followers they would get functions Free “Premium”and that those who had more than 5,000 verified would be awarded “Premium+”also free of charge.
Well, that “future” has already arrived this Thursday, almost a year and a half later of one of the great controversies that sparked the changes introduced to the platform by Musk, who installed a subscription model in which eliminated reliability and public interest as criteria to obtain the blue verification, becoming only requirement to acquire it the payment of it.
The technology tycoon was harshly criticized Therefore, since many media and famous personalities they declared against wanting to pay to have a privilege on the social network that until now they enjoyed for free. Many other users criticized X's new policy for wanting to obtain economic benefits from an identification system that worked without the need to pay for it.
Mockery and jokes about the change of mind
Like President Pedro Sánchez, Elon Musk seems to have “changed his mind” seeing that the strategy he decided to adopt was not giving the results he expected. Some of the celebrities and public figures who refused to pay to have the blue “check”, They charged this afternoon against theSouth African in a joking tone.
This is the case of the famous television lawyer TV presenter Katie Phangwho posted the following tweet upon discovering that his account was again marked with a blue symbol: “What is this random blue badge that I haven't asked for, nor paid for?”.
To this post, actor Mark Hamillknown for playing Luke Skywalker in the filmography of “Star Wars”answered: “I didn't pay for mine either. People, please don't judge me for my free blue symbol”.
Legal conflicts
This new change, which many have considered a sort of return to the “original” function of the blue badgetakes place just a few days after the legal defeat of Elon Musk before the organization Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). This institution had been reported by the billionaire, after having published a report on the rise of hate speech on the platform of the blue bird under Musk's mandate.
The now owner of X bought the social network toas precisely claimed, turn it into a kind of uncensored forum. Musk himself declared last November in an interview for the American television channel CNBC, in the form of a joke, that “Freedom of expression is not exactly free, it has a small cost”.
It turns out quite ironic the fact that Elon Musk has now been accused of wanting to censor the CCDH, after dismissing the lawsuit, precisely after declaring himself “defender of freedom of expression”.