Musk’s Twitter: why no one can have a blue verified check

Seriously, you’d think we’d all have more to worry about right now than the tweaks being made to a social media platform, but it’s big news.

Elon Musk and his Twitter changes

Yes, on the back of ‘the richest man in the world’ (I believe I’m obliged to always introduce him as that) Elon Musk purchasing Twitter, and getting rid of the previous owners quick smart, we’ve now got a situation where the popular engagement platform is going to be going through a number of changes. One of those getting plenty of attention is the process behind getting a verified account.

For many, these checks or ticks (depending on your chosen vernacular) are a very handy tool to know that the person issuing a tweet is who they say they are. From Mr Musk himself to the stars of sport, Hollywood, science and medicine and even the humble journalist, there was a sense of comfort in that, and you could arrange your settings accordingly so that your Uncle Bob’s wild machinations weren’t infiltrating your feed. Unless the official account was hacked -- or claimed to have been hacked, at least -- you knew that there was some weight behind the message, be it solid fact-based information or utter propaganda nonsense. They owned it.

The value of a blue/white tick

Musk’s new plan, one that he justifies as a means of bringing in more wads of cash to top up his far-from-ailing fortune, is to allow people to purchase the verification, potentially opening the door to a lot of confusion and possibly a significant rise of misinformation across the media. It’s not like we’re craving more of that!

So, yes, those blue checks we often invaluable. But wait. They were never blue checks after all. They were white checks, within a blue badge. And Ryan Mac gets the cap doffed from me as the enlightening force. Unless... dark mode... but...