Elon Musk's App Automatically Verifies Users with Large Followings

Published: 04 April 2024 at 08:35

Technology

Elon Musk's app is automatically giving verified checkmarks to users with over 2,500 verified subscriber followers, providing free Premium memberships and Premium Plus to those with more than 5,000 followers. Musk's move replaces the previous controversial blue tick system and some users are unhappy with the automatic verification. Users now have the option to hide their blue ticks on the platform. Many subscribers prefer this to avoid the perception of paying for verification. Elon Musk announced the change last week on the platform.

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Elon Musk announces changes to social media platform X, offering premium features for free to accounts with 2,500 verified subscriber followers or more.

Elon Musk has introduced changes to X, allowing accounts with 2,500 verified subscriber followers or more to access premium features for free, including editing abilities, longer posts, fewer ads, and a blue tick. Accounts with 5,000 subscribers can access Premium+ with Grok AI. X's user numbers have reportedly declined since Musk's takeover. Accounts offering subscriptions can earn money through X, with subscription prices set by creators. Musk's pitch includes providing premium features for free to accounts with a certain number of verified subscriber followers who likely also pay for access.

Twitter under Elon Musk (Wikipedia)

Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022; Musk acted as CEO of Twitter until June 2023 when he was succeeded by Linda Yaccarino. Twitter was then rebranded to X in July 2023. Initially during Musk's tenure, Twitter introduced a series of reforms and management changes; the company reinstated a number of previously banned accounts, reduced the workforce by approximately 80%, closed one of Twitter's three data centers, and largely eliminated the content moderation team, replacing it with the crowd-sourced fact-checking system Community Notes.In November 2022, Twitter then began offering paid verification checkmarks, followed by removing legacy verification. In December, the Twitter Files were released and a number of journalists suspended from the platform. The following year, a variety of further changes were made; API access restrictions, developer agreements updated, transgender hate conduct policies relaxed, new phrases and 'slurs' banned, and news headlines removed from posts. Temporary measures also occurred; media outlets were labeled as "state-affiliated" causing controversy, restrictions to viewing tweets and sending direct messages, as well as links to specific external websites blocked and delayed. One year after Musk's acquisition, active user engagement on the mobile app had declined 16% and the value of the company is estimated to be down between 55% and 65%, below the acquisition price of $44 billion.After stepping down to CTO, Musk remained the subject of widespread criticism over viral misinformation and disinformation, an increase in hate speech such as anti-LGBT rhetoric, as well as a number of antisemitism controversies. In response to certain claims, X Corp. has served lawsuits against nonprofit organizations Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate for their analysis. Musk has defended the approach to content moderation as "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach", previously describing the platform as having liberal bias. Musk has described X as a "digital town square", with the vision of becoming an "everything app". Commentators have described it as a "free speech free-for-all", "free-for-all hellscape", and as a right-wing social network. The platform has otherwise gained favorable attention from conservatives and Republicans.

Social media platform X introduces community notes feature in India for fact-checking tweets

Social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, has launched the Community Notes feature in India to combat misinformation by allowing users to fact-check tweets. This initiative, formerly called Birdwatch, includes contributors from 69 countries and promotes transparency by empowering the community to verify content. Elon Musk, the owner of X, announced the expansion of Community Notes to India just weeks before the national elections, aiming to provide more informed and responsible online interactions. Despite previous challenges in the Indian market due to government orders and strict social media laws, X continues to enhance features like Community Notes.

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