I have the blue 'check' from Twitter, but don't laugh at me

"Let's see, confess, do you pay for it?" Was the first message I received, from a newspaper boss.

It was the night of the fallen blue seals, last Thursday, when Elon Musk gave the order to purge the little symbol from verified accounts.

I was one of those: several years ago, I went through a process that made it clear, publicly, that @javisalas on Twitter is the same person who writes for EL PAÍS.

Now, when the verified stamps fall, we only have the panolis that we paid for with a blue

.

For this reason, since then, I have not stopped receiving messages of this type: "We know that you have paid for the blue, Javi, do not play distracted."

Luckily, all privately, discreetly.

No one has reproached me in public and I think that is the key: everyone knows that it is a stigma.

Unless you're a fan of Elon and his wanderings, that stamp is today like a scarlet letter of public shame and shame.

Having the

is not paying for the service (we'll talk about the

later ), it's taking sides for all of Musk's toxic statements—and decisions—since he took over the reins of Twitter carrying a sink.

Let's not cheat solitaire: Musk boarded the platform convinced that the left

he is silencing the political right.

And the tycoon is working seriously to give right-wing people a loudspeaker, even if they are neo-Nazis or use Twitter to spread dangerous lies that lead to coups, like Donald Trump.

Musk's attitude would already be controversial in a thoughtful, ideal world;

in this world of runaway polarization and culture wars, his figure has become a trench.

Stirring up those battles has been his business policy since he paid $44 billion for Twitter, in a masterful move worth studying in business schools: the company is no longer worth half of what it paid for and has turned its flagship product into a scarlet letter, in the dishonorable mark that nobody wants to wear.

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Twitter withdraws the blue 'check' from those who do not pay for the service, except for some celebrities

On Twitter, they proudly show off

having a blue seal.

It's an honor to have lost verification.

For this reason, in another commercial decision worthy of a Nobel Prize in Economics, Musk has decided

with the seal to personalities who explicitly said they did not want it.

Authors like Neil Gaiman or Stephen King, the rapper Doja Cat or the athlete LeBron James, want us to know that they do not pay.

Of the more than 400,000 verified accounts that existed before, not even 5% have decided to pay to maintain that seal, according to an audit by developer Travis Brown.

And only a handful left over from the night of the fallen seals, the same day he successfully detonated a rocket in the Texan skies.

There's even a campaign to block stamped users, a boycott that scares business accounts legitimately looking to improve their visibility.

By Lavapiés in fachaleco

I have an excuse, I tell everyone who makes fun of me: I've been paying for several weeks to be able to write this, to tell you how you live with paid Twitter.

But people don't know that;

That's why I'm embarrassed to use some of the services that would give me away, like writing tweets longer than 280 characters.

It would be like going out through Lavapiés wearing a waistcoat, moccasins and a red-and-gold bracelet;

or take a walk around the Oscars with the famous MAGA cap.

What other services do I have at my disposal in exchange for 8 euros (11 euros from the app)?

It allows you to see which articles are getting a lot of shares between the people you follow and the ones they follow;

let you edit tweets, but only for 30 minutes (sometimes it takes you to realize the mistake) and never in threads (mostly I tweet threads);

take time to send your tweets, in case you want to regret it;

to the app icon.

Is that worth 8 euros a month?

Twitter users laugh at subscribers because it's actually ridiculous to do so.

It's paying for sucking up to Elon.

In fact, he has almost 25,000 subscribers to his account, that is, people who pay for exclusive Elon content (they give him $100,000 a month, wow).

Furthermore, Twitter has now gifted

countless accounts with more than a million followers the blue

Something that has even angered Musk's fans because, of course, they pay for something that he gives even to the

(even if he does it to tease them).

Verified accounts are now prioritized

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2023

Going around the Spanish Twittersphere I see Arturo Pérez Reverte with a blue seal, Vox politicians, far-right influencers and memes, military paraphernalia accounts, entrepreneurship coaches and internet businesses.

And then a bunch of stoic and machirula self-help accounts: The Superior Man, Discipline of Masculinity, The Stoic, Mental Courage, Success Mindset.

One can cross the Iberian Peninsula by jumping, without stepping on the ground, over beads of wounded and fragile males.

But it is that

Najwa Nimri, Pablo Iglesias and Manuela Carmena are also

What is the problem?

Nobody knows if the

they pay or get paid.

And why don't I do my job and ask Twitter, you ask?

Because Musk has closed the communication office and if you write to his press email, they automatically respond with a poop emoji (💩).

Of course, the problems of verifying accounts that don't deserve verification reappeared: verified neo-Nazis and the unverified Auschwitz Museum;

false accounts of the Sudan Army with a blue seal that generate disinformation about the conflict;

for deceased users who have not requested it, such as Kobe Bryant or the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi;

a fake Disney account tweeting racist nonsense

was

The seal was withdrawn from the mainstream media and now it has been returned, but only to some.

All this chaos could also have legal consequences because in the end false commercial claims are being made.

That is why I said before about

, because it is paying to publicly declare that you are a fan of Musk and that you aspire to have more visibility than you deserve.

For this reason, Musk has tweeted today that those of the blue seal will be "prioritized."

What does that mean?

Now it doesn't matter.

Twitter had a lot of weaknesses and we kept denouncing them, but now, if we only go to Elon's fans, it won't be the influential place that it was.

And I don't want them to laugh at me anymore, because that's the only thing it's been useful for.

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