Posted Apr 3, 2023, 5:52 PMUpdated on Apr 3, 2023, 6:01 PM
Faced with Twitter version “Elon Musk”, media and personalities do not yet know on which foot to dance. Despite its 55 million subscribers on Twitter, the “New York Times” has just lost its golden badge on Sunday, reserved for businesses and which certifies its account on the social network. The prestigious daily refused to pay for this once free little notch.
It must also be said that Elon Musk had just sharply criticized the newspaper a little earlier. “The real tragedy of the @NYTimes is that their propaganda is not even interesting”, tackled on the micro-blogging site its owner, before driving the point home: “their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea . It’s unreadable. »
$8 per month subscription
This decision hits one of the biggest media in the world at a time when the social network is systematizing its paid certification policy. A sum of 8 dollars per month (11 dollars via the Apple store) is thus claimed from users if they want to benefit from the blue badge attesting to a verified account.
These badges were previously distributed free of charge to public figures. Since 1is April, Twitter began removing blue badges from accounts that failed to pay.
Businesses and NGOs, which receive a gold badge as “verified organizations,” would be asked to pay $1,000 (or 950 euros) monthly, plus $50 per additional affiliate account. There is some confusion about the status of old verified organization accounts, which to this day mostly retain their badges.
The media balk
According to AFP, the “New York Times” refuses in any case to pay the subscription giving right to the golden badge, just like the “Washington Post” and the “Los Angeles Times”, according to “Buzzfeed”. In France, media groups such as “Prisma” or “Le Monde” indicate that they continue to benefit from this badge free of charge on their title accounts. “We have decided not to pay for any account of our journalists or our services in particular”, specifies however the direction of “Le Monde”.
For its part, CMI France specifies that it has not adopted its position concerning a possible payment for the accounts of its magazines (“Elle”, “Marianne”, etc.). But the group also indicates that the possible subscription of journalists would not be reimbursed, the decision being a matter of individual initiative. The AFP would have finally explained to its employees “to study the situation” and to be ready to “adapt if necessary”, indicates “La Correspondance de la presse. »
Outside the media, several leading personalities, such as basketball player LeBron James or writer Stephen King, have also announced their intention not to pay a subscription.
Mix of genres
Many media denounce a mix of genres between identity verification and the financial interest of Twitter. “The only problem Elon Musk is trying to solve with this new policy is that of Twitter’s finances, which have been in dire straits since he took over. This quantitative vision, which confuses certification and monthly payments, is directly opposed to the idea of democracy yet dear to Elon Musk”, declared in a press release Vincent Berthier, head of the technology office of the NGO “Reporters without borders. »
Elon Musk, on the contrary, considers this policy necessary to fight against false accounts. According to several American media, the billionaire would have recently estimated the value of Twitter at twenty billion dollars, less than half the price at which he bought it last October.
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX is betting on these new subscriptions to take over revenue and raise the bar. The bet seems far from won.