“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” Musk said : “Power to the people!”

It all sounds altruistic enough till you find that the cost for people to level up to the status of the Twitterati is $8 a month.

For that you get less adverts, longer videos to post, promoted tweets and a blue spot next to your name – testifying to you being the real McCoy.

spot the parody account

I’m not popular enough on twitter to merit parody accounts but I once was the subject of a feeble attempt by consultants at Aon to #turnoffthetap. John Ralfe has his doppelganger @ralfebot whose hit rap

Listen to my brand new track “All Based on FE”.
Dedicated to Master, Plowman, and the Bazooka.@JohnRalfe1, @henryhtapper @MikeOtsukahttps://t.co/H668UnkFA1

— John Ralfebot #PensionsTrump (@Ralfebot) August 11, 2018

had its moment.

But that’s about as threatening as it’s got for me. I’m quite happy being a peasant

Would I pay £7 pm for a blue tick?

Probably not, on the basis that it’s pretention, I don’t want to be promoted over my social media station and I suspect that those who buy the badge, will become general targets of derision (as might premium members of linked in).

We all know that Spotify, linked in and Amazon are perfectly good without the “prime” subscription. I would need to have a more powerful reason to stay a peasant than the benefits outlined so far by twitter

This would give subscribers “priority in replies, mentions & search”, which he said was “essential to defeat spam/scam”.

It would also give users the ability to post longer video and audio clips, and view “half as many ads”. Musk has also indicated he will overhaul the system of verification — whereby only high-profile celebrities, politicians and journalists are given a “blue tick” next to their username for free — to extend it to Twitter Blue subscribers.

Those who sign up would also be able to bypass the paywall for news articles for publishers that decide to work with Twitter, Musk said. “This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,”

Savvy readers will notice that the above information has been lifted from behind a paywall, thanks for sharing FT.

It seems that social media advertising revenue are down , so the peasants need to pay to be lords, meanwhile the owner of twitter tells us “he must pay the bills”.

The big question for the peasants is just how unpleasant Musk  will  make Twitter , if we don’t pay his taxes!