Announced, canceled, then relaunched, the “official” badge is part of the new subscription strategy paying to the social network.
Le Monde with AFP
“Thank you for note that Twitter will do a lot of animals in the coming months. We will keep what works and change what does not work,” he warned last week. Elon Musk, who has just bought the social network, cannot say better to describe the chaotic launch of one of its new products, the “official” badge.
This new device aims to report the authenticity and notoriety of an account (its number of subscribers). It is distinguished from the blue check, which fulfilled this role so far.
Launched in preview Mecredi November 9, for the accounts of governments and media personalities, he was then “suppressed” by Elon Musk, then restored by a director of the social network for a more limited perimeter, in a cacophony become the platform’s communication standard. It took a user’s comment, noting that the “official” badge had disappeared from the platform, so that Musk confirms: “I just deleted it.”
“Official” badge will be activated when launching Twitter Blue “, tweeted the director of development products Esther Crawford, a few minutes after the announcement of the abandonment by the new boss. It is ultimately a question of offering all users a subscription of $ 8 per month to a new version of the social network, the famous Twitter Blue, via the “Official” badge.
“We are just starting with governments and commercial organizations, tried to justify M me crawford. What [Elon Musk] mentioned is the fact that we do not give badge “Official” to individuals for the moment. “Accounts like that of the American deputy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pope Francis or rapper Kanye West had received the” official “badge before he disappears.
“quest for truth”
Elon Musk also detailed his approach on Wednesday at an online conference. The richest man in the world would like to have “80 % of humanity” on Twitter, which would interact “in a more positive way”. “We want to be in a vigorous quest for the truth. (…) It is a nebulous concept but we can aspire to it,” he said.
The new subscription will include the blue check, a guarantee of authenticity, and access to practical advantages. According to the leader, he must allow to combat false profiles and automated accounts, because malicious actors will have to spend eight dollars each time, and have as many credit cards as accounts they want to create.
“Everything that is neither true, nor interesting nor entertaining will be stopped or in any case relegated to the background,” also explained Elon Musk. “The checked account messages will be displayed by default,” he detailed. And the tweets from people who have not paid for Twitter Blue will be treated a bit like “spam” on a mailbox: “We can always consult the spam file.”
The comparison risks making the many detractors of the multimillionaire ironize, who says he wants to “give more power to the people” and abolish “the current system of lords and peasants, between those who have blue check and those who do not ‘don’t have “. The subscription revised in depth is currently only available in the mobile application, on the iPhone and in the United States.
Elon Musk’s ties with foreign countries “deserve to be examined,” American president Joe Biden, in response to the possibility that Twitter by the billionaire, said on Wednesday represents a threat to threat to US national security.