It’s only been a few days since Elon Musk took over Twitter and changes have been swift it seems such as the firing of multiple executives. It was expressed before how he needs to find a way to generate income for the platform and recently reports have gone out that he is thinking of charging people money for a blue checkmark which is known to represent an important public figure as an example. It’s free but getting it is another story.
So Musk recently posed all these messages where it would appear he is serious about charging people money for this blue checkmark. He implied that the system is broken and tat charging people $8 a month for it would be the way to go. This generated backlash from a lot of people who already have the checkmark of course.
But then you start to read his other posts combined with the fact that he is advocating free speech while criticizing various media sources on their reporting of him makes you wonder if he is trolling people. He does have a habit of posting sarcastic posts as an example. Usually, business executives would never dare to say joke around on serious issues. But I think Elon Musk is one of the exceptions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he does introduce a fee-based service, but this in particular is potentially just to get people riled up. I do remember him saying that they need a way to authenticate everyone as a real human though.