Twitter to Waive Monthly Verification Fee for Top 10,000 Brands
By Movieguide® Contributor
As Twitter rolls out its new verification system requiring users to pay for a blue checkmark, the company announced it will waive the fee for its 500 largest advertising clients and 10,000 most-followed brands previously verified.
As of April 1, Twitter will charge $1,000 per month for businesses and organizations, including governments and non-profits, to be verified on the site. The legacy verifications will be replaced by gold checkmarks for brands and companies and grey checkmarks for governmental organizations. Twitter will also charge $50 per month for brand-affiliated profiles (i.e., employees, brands, or divisions) to be verified.
“[It’s] important to establish whether someone actually belongs to an organization or not so as to avoid impersonation,” Musk tweeted about the Verified Organizations subscription plan. “We’ve already seen organizations, including sports teams, news organizations, financial firms, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits join Verified Organizations and list their affiliated accounts publicly on their profiles.”
The full upheaval to the verification service comes after months of Musk blasting the old system for being “corrupt and nonsensical.” However, not everyone thinks charging for a checkmark is the best solution.
Last month, William Shatner complained about Twitter’s plan to rescind legacy blue checkmarks and force everybody to pay.
“It’s more about treating everyone equally,” Musk responded. “It’s more about treating everyone equally. There shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities imo.”
“We need to pay the bills somehow,” Musk said in a different tweet responding to a complaint from author Stephen King.
Yet the decision to waive the fee for 10,000 top brands goes against these sentiments. Not only does it reduce overall profits, but it also shows special privilege based on popularity. This decision is likely fueled by the desire to keep large brands happy and on the site while also encouraging smaller brands to pay the $1,000-a-month fee to appear on the same footing as these more popular brands.
Musk has faced numerous problems since taking over the site late last year, including legal battles, money issues and difficulty maintaining good standing in the public eye. However, he has fought to overhaul the site and make it a profitable, safe platform.
Twitter Blue and the updated verification service have been at the center of Musk’s plan for the website, and as these changes near completion, it will be interesting to see where he takes the company next.
Movieguide® previously reported on Twitter’s changes:
Elon Musk’s latest round of Twitter upheavals includes doing away with legacy verifications and limiting additional features exclusively to paid-verification service users.
“Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations,” Musk tweeted. “This is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for the same reason.”
The “For You” page is an algorithmically curated space where Twitter shares a blend of tweets from people you follow along with recommended tweets. In the past, this system has not relied on verification status to decide what gets placed on a user’s feed.
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