Things have changed dramatically on Twitter over the past nine months, and it has been quite the roller-coaster ride. I am still on the platform, but the time I spend on there has lessened rather noticeably. To me, Twitter feels like a pay-to-play platform now, with Elon Musk once describing non-subscribers’ content during a Twitter Spaces session as being accessible like the spam folder in one’s email inbox. Whether such a description was intentional or an unhappy coincidence, we will probably never find out. But with the way the algorithm has been tweaked to favour subscribers, it certainly feels as if non-subscribers’ content is only an afterthought now.
In the United Kingdom, where I am based, a monthly subscription to Twitter Blue costs £9.60 per month, dropping to £8.40 per month if one were inclined to pay for a year’s subscription upfront. It is not that I cannot afford to subscribe. On top of the algorithm boost, there are some features of the Twitter Blue subscription of which I would find very useful: an edit button, posting of long-form tweets, posting of longer videos to name but a few. But the “verification” mark which is given to every subscriber is probably one major issue which I think has ruined Twitter and the subscription service.
Twitter’s verification used to be a mark of authenticity. It signified that the account which has been verified actually was owned by / linked to celebrities, organisations, journalists. When Twitter Blue came about, everyone that subscribed suddenly got a verification mark too. Imposters could be “verified” as long as they were willing to pay Elon Musk’s Twitter a subscription. Although the actual cause is still under some debate, some commentators have even linked the fall in Eli Lilly’s share price in November 2022 to a tweet made by a “verified” fake Eli Lilly account announcing that insulin would be free.
With an actual verification system for well-known / authentic accounts gone, and the current “verification” mark acting as a symbol to identify subscribers to Elon Musk’s vision of Twitter, there seems to be a group of users using the hashtag #BlockTheBlue, where they are blocking any subscribed accounts they come across. There is even a Block The Blue extension for Google’s Chrome browser which automatically blocks anyone who subscribes to Twitter.
Whilst I can understand why some people may wish to carry out a #BlockTheBlue campaign as a protest against the direction in which Elon Musk has taken Twitter, the problem is the campaign also really harms freelancers, like me, and small businesses that cannot afford to be verified as an organisation or business at the cost of £1,140 per month, plus £60 per username per month.
There is a worry that subscribing to pay-to-play Twitter Blue in the hope that the algorithm would show one’s content more prominently would then turn into pay-to-be-blocked by those carrying out a #BlockTheBlue campaign. Although it is unlikely we will find out for certain how many Twitter users are part of the #BlockTheBlue campaign, there were certainly enough people using the hashtag for it to have been trending on Twitter in April 2023.
I have noticed that I am spending less and less time on Twitter since this pay-to-play model was implemented. But then what next? The problem now is that there are quite a few platforms looking as if they could be potential alternatives to Twitter, even if they explicitly claim they are not trying to replace Twitter. There is a choice of Mastodon, T2, Bluesky, and of course Instagram’s Threads to name but a few. But where are people going to go? Which platform should I now concentrate on in lieu of Twitter?
I do not have an answer, but I feel that I need to come up with one quite soon, as I am spread over so many platforms now with the aim of “trying them out” that I feel that I am not really making any meaningful contributions to those communities at the moment, which defeats the “social” part of social media.
Whilst I think it would not be a good thing for Twitter to disappear, it is clear that there is a number of Twitter users who are giving up the blue bird for one of these “Twitter alternatives”. I just wish people would decide on staying or finding an alternative sooner rather than later so that we can all settle down and be friends again on whatever platform people choose to use.
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