Hello, senior tech reporter Kylie Robison here. When Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion, he claimed it had a serious bot problem. The problem was so serious, he claimed, that it was enough of a reason to back out of the deal altogether. That didn’t pan out for him, so when he purchased the platform he vowed to banish all bots. A part of Musk’s plan was to completely reform the verification system, by charging users $8 per month for the blue check that confers “verified” status. He said, “It is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls.”
I think about this grand vision of his often. Many journalists, including myself, can admit that we’re hopelessly addicted to the platform. And what I’ve noticed lately when I get my fix and scroll through my feed, is a whole lot of advertisements from users who have no posts, and are selling fake luxury goods. As a reporter on this beat, I’m of course thinking: How does Musk not have a massive issue with this?
