Unless you have been spending all of your time on Fair Go casino login Australia, you are definitely aware that Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 million dollars.
But if you need a quick catchup, here it is:
- On March 22, 2022, SEC regulators say they had the authority to subpoena Elon Musk’s Tweets and “urged a federal judge not to let the executive get away with tweeting with abandon”.
- On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk made an unsolicited offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion.
- On April 25, Twitter’s board of directors unanimously accepted Musk’s buyout offer of $44 billion, with the company set to be taken private.
- Twitter puts a freeze on the Twitter source code. All software changes must be approved by the Vice President fo Twitter.
- On May 13, Elon Musk says the purchase of Twitter is on hold due to spam and bot accounts, official reports not matching what Elon Musk says his people calculated.
- On July 8, 2022, Elon Musk kills the deal (to the frustration of “Free Speech advocates”).
- On October 4, Elon Musk agrees to complete the purchase of Twitter.
- On October 22, the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk goes through.
- On October 26, 2022, Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter (Musk’s version of a sense of humor).
- On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk officially takes over Twitter.
- On October 29, Musk fires Twitter’s old CEO (not unexpected) and a bunch of other high level people) as well as the whole Data Engineering team (data scientists).
- On November 3, 2022, Musk begins to lay off employees, and Employees file a class action suit, because they were not given 60 days warning (Federal Law), but they are given 60 days severance pay, and according to federal law, that counts as “giving official notice”.
5 Major Changes Musk did to Twitter over the Last Week
- Dissolving Twitter’s board (everybody knew this was going to happen, and the board made sure they would be well compensated).
- Firing top executives (again, not unexpected, and the top executives made sure they would be well compensated).
- Bringing in Tesla engineers to review Twitter’s code (makes sense).
- Launching content moderation council and revamping Twitter verification. Musk announced that he is not going to reinstate banned accounts until the council creates a policy and a process for people to appeal that they want their account reinstated. (Frustration for those who wanted Trump’s account immediately reinstated, but logically, it makes sense. So we give Musk time, and see how ‘the chips land’).
- Vine review (I personally never heard of vine before, but Musk did talk about wanting to set up YouTube type applications and other applications that people consider “standard applications”.
AOC is angry that she has to pay $8/month to get something Twitter previously gave her before for free.
What was Twitter’s Old Blue Checkmark Badge Verification Process?
People get their online and phone identities stolen. Even my 10 year son has gotten his identity stolen. Who would want to waste time impersonating a 10 year old boy? Somebody who wants to do criminal activity, and believes they are immune from getting caught.
One of the first celebrities to be impersonated on Twitter was Shaquille O’Neal. Somebody else had created an account in his name, and tried to impersonate him. This was back in 2008.
In 2009, Twitter started to verify accounts. When this was started, the verification was completely controlled by Twitter. Twitter would begin with people at risk of impersonation, including celebrities, politicians and public agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It did not include businesses back in 2009.
In the more than 13 years since the blue check mark badge was introduced, it has proved to be fallible. But there were problems. In August 2021, the agent for Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, said that a verified account in the author’s name, which shared musings about kombucha and TikTok, was not his.
Even as recently as 2019, people have complained about not being verified and about being confused about how the process works. In May 2021, Twitter made the process easier by allowing users to apply to be verified. But it was still all under the control of Twitter. The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the blue badge, your account must be authentic, notable, and active.
What was considered authentic, notability, and active by “Old Twitter”?
- Government (obviously)
- Includes link to official government URL in their profile
- Links to 5 relevant articles that reference the individual
- Verified official government email
- Official websites that reference the Twitter handle
- Candidates running for office
- Account says they are a candidate and what office they are running for
- URL of campaign website
- Registered with the appropriate election committee
- News organizations
- Individuals in news and journalism
- Account must refer directly to the name and official URL of the qualifying organization in your Twitter bio (Who defines qualifying organization? That is up to Twitter.)
- Employer verified your account (What about independent freelance journalists or bloggers?)
- You have to be listed on an official company website (Does that include independent bloggers?)
- Freelance Journalists
- 3 articles crediting you as the author from an already verified news organization (So if Twitter did not approve of your news organization, you are out of luck.)
- Official websites or news articles published by already Verified organizations that reference the applicant’s Twitter handle or registered email address can help authenticate your account
- Companies, brand, and organizations
- Entertainment
- Sports and games
- Activists and organizers
- Content creators and influential individuals
- Digital content creators who consistently publish original content (regardless of platform) for the last 6 months prior to applying
- Account reflecting and individual, and not an organization
- Account meets criteria for significant platform presence (top .05% of mentions or follower count) in their geographic region (So if you are trying to “break in”, you are out of luck. But what is that in terms of followers?
- Profile on Google Trends
- Stable Wikipedia article about you
- Links to 3 or more articles that reference you within the last 6 months
- Link to content page outside of Twitter to show your content over the last 6 months
- Official websites or news articles from verified organizations that reference your Twitter handle.
Twitter Account that are ineligible for verification:
- Parody
- Newsfeeds
- Commentary
- Unofficial fan accounts
- Pets and fictional characters, unless with a verified company (for example, “Harry Potter” that is owned by the company that owns the Trademark for Harry Potter)
- Platform manipulation, bots, and spam accounts
- Individuals and groups associated with coordinated harmful activity or hate content (Who defines what is ‘harmful activity’ or ‘hate content’?)
- Accounts that routinely post content that is harassment, shames, or insults any individual or group (Who defines what that is?)
- Accounts that promote the selling of verification badge (So sorry Steven King, if you do go through with your threat to copy and paste the Twitter verification badge, you will not only get the image removed, but you will also be banned from being able to ever get the badge in the future).
Twitter’s plan for the verification under Elon Musk?
The main problem with the process above was that it, if an account got verified or not verified, was the whim of Twitter. People like Steven King and AOL that are “family names” will have zero problems getting verified.
But what if you are a new author who just wrote your very first novel that you want to get published (maybe with an official publisher or maybe by yourself)? You are brand new to the industry, so you are not yet know enough to have an official Wikipedia page about you.
But you are definitely not a criminal, have no intention of cheating anybody, nor have any intention of doing any harm to anybody. You are just a 22 year old man who wrote his first book, and wants to provide the opportunity for (hopefully) future fans, to give feedback, positive review, and words of encouragement. But you want your “future fans” to know that your account is you.
Under Twitter’s old policy, that would not be possible.
But under Twitter’s new policy that goes into effect on November 7, 2022, you can pay $8/month and have an official verified account. Your verification is your ID (which even PayPal requires) and your credit card.
The cost over a year is $92/year.
AOC says that is “Highway Robbery”, thievery, unaccepting, and charging people for “Freedom of Speech”.
Twitter’s comparison of other equivalents
If you write by hand (the most basic of Freedom of Speech) at a rate of using 1 ream of paper a month, over a year, it will cost you around $60/year for the paper, and approximately $20/year for pens, for a total cost of $60/year. This does not include copy charges so that you can share it with one person. Yet, Twitter allows you to share it with the whole world.
If you are a business, and you want to create a TV ad, it will cost you at least $15k/month. A full page ad in a traditional newspaper is $7000 – $150,000. A small ad can cost you $480, and it is a limited time and definitely NOT a year.
Running an ad in the Yellow Pages can cost you tens of thousands of dollars per year, $250-$400 per month.
Paying for a Twitter verified account is a form of advertising for your business. Nobody cares if your account is verified unless you are asking them for money or “your word” is somehow more powerful than somebody else’s word (for example, an official government account, or an official non-profit organization). If your business is making money, the $92/year Twitter fee goes under the “Advertising budget”, and most likely it will be your most inexpensive advertising item.
Accounts that are still free to verify
- Government accounts are not requied to pay (so AOC, your account will be free).
- Accounts in regions that are sanctioned, so Twitter cannot accept payments.
- Famous people will have an additional tag below their name, for example, a politician has their political title under their name.
So the Biden administration will not be required to pay the $8/month, and neither will Nancy Pelosi’s official Twitter account.
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