Twitter’s path to profitability requires a significant number of people to pay for Blue — the £8-per-month subscription. This, among other things, gives users the verified blue tick that was previously reserved for notable figures under the old regime.
Now owner Elon Musk has confirmed that a long-planned change is now in place that should make the subscription more appealing to those on the fence. “Verified accounts are now prioritised,” Musk tweeted.
This is something that has been promised since last November, when Musk said that Twitter Blue would provide “priority in replies, mentions & search”. It has since been expanded to the algorithmically generated ‘For You’ tab, which is now the default view for users.
In other words, it’s a way of gaining visibility. But rather than pitching this as a way of paying for engagement, Musk said that it was “essential to defeat spam/scam” [sic.] — a long-time bugbear of the man. Though that assumes spammers and scammers won’t pay for added reach themselves.
It’s a contentious change, as it will make it a lot harder for those who refuse to pay for Blue to see their tweets go viral, or even for them to attract new followers. If your tweets don’t appear organically in front of strangers, there’s no reason to think they’ll ever find you.
That could be why the platform has been gifting Twitter Blue to high-profile accounts. After all, without notable figures filling up the ‘For You’ feed, it could ironically have felt more spammy than before.
By making Blue more obviously necessary, Musk may begin to make paying for Twitter more socially acceptable. Until now, blue checks have gone from being deeply desirable to looking so unfashionable that many unwilling celebrity recipients have shared ways of removing the unwanted gift.
“Change your name and it triggers a checkmark removal,” the American model Chrissy Teigen tweeted. “But then don’t talk about it again or you will get another. Im serious lol.”
