Elon's "Verified" Salt Mine
Elon's "Verified" Salt Mine
How $8 for a digital indulgence combats propaganda and upsets Twitter's power and prestige dynamic
It appears Elon has uncovered and upset a power and prestige dynamic. If you are not aware of the news, he is making good on his earlier suggestion of allowing “verified” status to come at a monthly price for certain benefits. To understand and appreciate how this affects the dynamic of twitter, we must analyze what the “verified” status was meant to be and what it has become. In this piece, we will examine the upset of Twitter’s status quo, how it illuminates a divide between the “verified” Twitter elites and the masses, and how the verified elites have walked into a trap by showing their distaste at the measure.
Twitter’s verified status was meant to be available for notable people who are under threat of impersonation. Unfortunately, that is not the only criteria. Now it has evolved to become exclusive for notable people who ally with the status quo and “thought police,” or rather people that support chosen and convenient narratives.
The above is what verified status was meant to be. However, this is not the case. One notable example is of Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, a notable scientist who has not been given verified status for what could be described as censorship and marginalization. She has had many attempts of others to impersonate her account and has not been given verified status as of yet.
Let me show you an example of the status symbol “verified” has become:
This is what it has become. A status symbol of not only identity, bet verification of expertise and status, which makes this interaction so comically poignant:
Imagine the perspective of people who hold the free status symbol. All of a sudden, this status symbol went for sale for $20. Then a complaint about the cost from someone exorbitantly wealthy who should not balk at the price but rather about it being up for sale, and Elon calls the bluff and says he will lower it even further. Meaning, the economic barrier-to-entry for a bluecheck is attainable at the cost of a monthly Subway sub (or Easychair sub). It’s funny!
The $8 does not only allow you to be seen more. The bot swarms verified to be used by special interests will now have a higher economic barrier, and may have an identity barrier as well. You may be more assured that the person you are arguing with over In n Out versus 5 guys is actually a person.
In the healthcare and science field, the bluecheck has become a symbol of status and expertise rather than simply identity verification. However, in the field of biological science, “expertise” has become a thing of debate. For example, many “elite” scientists at Harvard and U wash believed that herd immunity to covid could be reached and that reinfections would not be as severe as a primary illness. They were confident enough to say that a single person opposing the entire field, me, was less likely to be a “Galileo” and more likely to be a “crank.”
In the West, we chose to assume long-lived T cell memory would be efficacious in preventing severe disease. Therefore we platformed narratives and pushed them that aligned with this, and expert voices fell into agreement accordingly. Of course, I opposed these conclusions from the beginning.
In sum, I believe Elon’s shift to paid verified status will lessen the impact of propaganda. I believe it is also a source of schadenfreude for him given he faces much warranted and unwarranted criticism from talking heads on Twitter, but a high amount of populist support. This move, I think, is more pertinent to the flow of information rather than cash flow. The next big question is whether he will allow one to achieve the bluecheck anonymously or not, and whether it will be payable in cryptocurrency. Of course, an ‘anonymous ‘verified’ account does not make sense, but you never know. Twitter did it for “Skeptical Zebra,” a highly abusive and confrontational twitter troll.
Stay safe out there,
AJ
I was already a Twitter Blue subscriber for $2.99 per month. I had already verified my account with Twitter professional but did not get a check mark because I am not a famous person. When I upgraded to the verified account it was processed with ApplePay. I would imagine that it would be hard to overcome this level of security on a large scale. Apple knows all.