Twitter blue checks for $8 on Monday

[solarbird]

Ben Collins, NBC News: “Twitter employees want to stress that the company is a nightmare right now and you cannot work there. And the website is built on sticks and it might fall apart. It’s a house of cards.” “Elon is deeply out of his depth.” “This could be really bad.”

It gets worse.

On MONDAY - the day before the election - if Elon makes his announced deadline, LITERALLY ANYONE will be able to buy a blue check on Twitter for $8.

The blue check becomes meaningless. LITERALLY ANYONE would be able to impersonate LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE, and have a blue check on their name.

And since the vetting and moderation staff have been gutted, they almost certainly will. Right now, racism, holocaust denial, and antisemitic commentary are surging from bots, fascists, and people like the jackass formerly known as Kanye West.

By Tuesday, election day, if he makes this deadline, Twitter will probably become the biggest fountain of fraud and disinformation in the world - and many actors WILL use that fountain.

BE AWARE. BE READY.

Comments

[dewline]

Yeah, assuming he isn't arrested for anything horrific between now and Monday.

Not counting on the arrest ever happening, mind you.

[solarbird]

Don't be silly. Aside from the layoff notices, none of this is illegal, and even that's just a fine which means it just costs money and he doesn't have to care.

[arethinn]

I don't pretend to know how it worked before (I still don't even have a Twitter account) but... this is obviously bad? yeah? If they were charging money in addition to whatever else they do, that would suck, sure, but just a pay to play service? wtf?

and I thought they already had a subscription tier? maybe not enough people were buying into it. Well, ok, so, make it more appealing?

[solarbird]

Turns out if you don't pay the $8, you're permanently shadowbanned. If you want posts to get seen? Pay up.

No, really. That's what he told investors yesterday.

[wrog]

I think it's time for a betting pool on how long it takes Twitter to implode.

And wow am I glad NASA didn't put all of their eggs in the SpaceX basket, but I'm still worried there's going to be fallout there from this.