New Delhi (India), 22nd April 2023: As Twitter’s long-standing blue tick mark system eventually ends, the social media platform’s new paid-for verification system is creating quite a commotion, with CEO Elon Musk personally paying for some celebrities’ verification when they refuse to do so.
A further revelation from today’s chaos is that anyone wishing to advertise on Twitter will now supposedly need to have a verified account.
A number of Twitter users, including social media guru Matt Navarra, have shared copies of an email that Twitter is said to have sent, in which it is said that, from today, April 21 (today), verified checkmarks are necessary to continue selling advertising on the platform.
It is evident that Twitter still needs and wants advertising money, despite Musk’s efforts to promote subscriptions as the main source of revenue as sponsors left the platform. Top advertisers on the network, those who spend $1,000 per month, already get a free gold checkmark that denotes that they are legitimate company accounts.
There is currently no formal word on Twitter’s advertisements account pages that only verified accounts would be permitted to place ads, although requiring verification of advertisers may make sense if it helps to minimise spam or dissuade other undesirable actors from using the site.
While the $8 monthly cost is not a significant deterrent in and of itself, it would undoubtedly require thorough verification beyond just requiring a credit card and phone number for this to be truly effective.
