Elon Musk's "blue check" debacle: His brain has been broken by whiny incels [View all]

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Elon Musk's "blue check" debacle: His brain has been broken by whiny incels
For Twitter's angry nerds, the blue check is like a girlfriend — it's infuriating because you can't buy it

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 4, 2022 5:55AM (EDT)


(Salon) Aweek after Elon Musk acquired Silcon Valley's bluest white elephant, Twitter, the tech billionaire appears determined to live up to all the dark suspicions people harbor about him. His ideas on how to run the company seem to be borrowed directly from the worst people on the internet, dudes who spend most of their time toggling between spewing racial slurs into "Call of Duty" and griping on Reddit about how woke bitches won't have sex with them. That's because Musk's brilliant idea for making Twitter profitable is — don't laugh! — charging people a monthly subscription fee for having a blue check mark next to their name.

If you spend enough time in the disorienting chocolate factory-like hellscape that is Twitter, you will soon discover a shocking amount of resentment from right-wing nerds about the existence of the aforementioned blue check. Musk himself is channeling this resentment, claiming he was doing this to end the "lords & peasants" system. But, as Edward Ongweso Jr. of Vice points out, by "elites," Musk — the richest man in the world — "more or less means journalists." He may think he's a man of the people, but he's a rich brat who cannot believe that anyone is allowed to talk back to him.

The little blue symbol is affixed to profiles, in theory, to indicate that "this person is who they say they are." In truth, it's become increasingly difficult to get one in recent years. It usually requires both having a relatively robust public profile and an employer who is willing to vouch that your persona matters to their bottom line or institutional standing. (I got mine because Salon organized it for every editorial employee with a prominent byline, for instance.) It's supposed to give Twitter readers a little more confidence that the person who's talking feels some protectiveness over their reputation and therefore won't be talking entirely out of their ass.

In practice, Twitter gave checks to people like Daily Wire head Ben Shapiro and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, individuals for whom the ass does literally all the talking. As a gauge of information quality, it is deeply compromised. Still, combining the blue check mark with a quick look at someone's profile can help a user decide whether a tweet is trustworthy or not. Blue check mark plus a Twitter bio saying you work for NBC News? Probably OK! Blue check mark plus a job as a Republican official? Don't believe a word they say! ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/04/elon-musks-blue-check-debacle-his-brain-has-been-broken-by-whiny-incels/