CLEVELAND — That blue verified checkmark on Twitter helps people decipher whether an account is that actual person’s or not. While getting or maintaining that status on Twitter was free in the past, it will soon come with a price tag.
Cleveland native and Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere Founder Ricky Smith is a TV writer, comedian and entrepreneur. He said he owes a lot of his success to social media.
“I got a TV show on social media,” said Smith. “I got friendships out of social media. I got to write my first ever tv writing gig out of social media. I got to meet Jack who invented Twitter. So for me, I would arguably say I’m probably a social media success story.”
It was his popularity and success that landed him a verified blue check mark on Twitter. In order to be verified on Twitter, you have to be authentic, notable and active. While Twitter is one of his favorite social media platforms, he said he’s not enjoying the influx of bots and fake profiles messaging him.
“I know good and well after an hour or after two hours or something, it’s going to get all out brawls, nasty comments, N-words spewed for nothing,” he said.
That’s why he said he would like to see Twitter verify people’s identities before they are even able to create an account.
“At least we know it’s not some bot, or not some person sitting in their basement that is just coming here for anger or for malice or any of those reasons,” he said.
But new Twitter owner Elon Musk is trying to take it one step further. Within 90 days, users will have to pay $20 a month for the Twitter Blue plan to get or keep their blue check mark status. In a later tweet, he mentioned lowering the monthly fee to $8.
“The issue with that is that you’re shrinking the value of Twitter if you do that. Not that it wouldn’t necessarily be a public service to verify accounts,” said Jeffrey Blevins, University of Cincinnati Professor of Journalism & School of Public & International Affairs.
Blevins believes that not only will people probably leave Twitter because it, but he also doesn’t think it will be worth it financially for Musk.
“We’re probably talking about something that’s in the millions of dollars which might sound like a lot to you and I,” he said. “But in the grand scheme of Twitter, I don’t know how $5-$10 million is really going to make or break you.”
Results from a Twitter survey show that more than 80 percent of the 1.9 million people surveyed say they would not pay to be verified on Twitter. As for Smith, he said he’s kind of up in the air about it.
“I am going to start off with it, but if I’m looking at something where I don’t use it as much as I use to, we’ll see what happens,” said Smith.
