Elon Musk defended on Friday March 31 its controversial decision to charge users who wish to have a certified account on Twitterbelieving that the social networks that will not follow his example will eventually collapse, overwhelmed with fake accounts.
“The major challenge here is that it is very simple to create 10,000 or 100,000 fake accounts on Twitter with a single computer and modern AI,” Elon Musk explained during a question and answer session on his platform, the day before the switch to paid certification, which must become effective on April 1. “That’s why verification can only be done with a phone and credit card number,” he added, “my prediction is that the so-called social networks that won’t will collapse”.
>> To read also: “Changing the rules of the game”: the challenges of paid certification on Twitter
The businessman is also desperate to find a way to generate revenue for a company that he says has lost more than half of its value since it was taken over for more than $40 billion.
$8 per month subscription
This evolution of the system, however, raises many questions among companies, celebrities, politicians and journalists who use Twitter as one of their main means of communication and might count on this certification as proof of their credibility.
It also raises the question of impostors and jokers who will pay for a certification but for a fake account. In the US, the subscription, called Twitter Blue, costs $8 a month, $11 through Apple’s app store.
Since its creation in 2009, blue certification has become an essential element in making the social network a trusted forum for many users. But Elon Musk has always considered this sign as the symbol of a form of digital class system and opening the certification to anyone who would like to pay for it was one of the first decisions made by the billionaire when he bought the social network, the year last.
Without much success, however: the launch of the first version of the subscription led to a flood of fake accounts, sometimes impersonating Elon Musk himself, forcing him to back down but losing many of his advertisers in the process, scalded, and at the same time a essential part of the platform’s revenues.
For the time being, it is difficult to know whether the new system will be widely adopted or not. The White House, which will keep a special symbol as a government entity, has already announced that it will not pay for the accounts of its employees, according to the specialized site Axios.
Likewise, the majority of media and businesses are waiting to see how things go before deciding whether or not to pay $1,000 per month, and an additional $50 per account, in the United States.
With AFP
