After a protracted process, where the world's richest man tried to pull out numerous times, Elon Musk finally purchased Twitter for a huge $44 billion on October 28.
Anyone keeping up with Musk's on again, off again Twitter purchase would be forgiven for thinking that with it being finalized that would be the end of the drama.
In fact, it was just the start. In the two weeks since Musk bought Twitter there have been mass layoffs, high-profile departures, an exodus of users and advertisers and features that have been dumped as quickly as they were added.
It's hard to keep up with it all, so we've fired up this live blog to keep you updated with what's happening with the social media network, and to try figure out what's happening and what it means for Twitter users the world over.
Perhaps the most controversial thing to come from Musk's Twitter takeover has been the changes to how accounts are verified.
Previously, if the verified account of a media outlet (such as TechRadar) or other organization published something, you would at least know that it came from an official source. The Blue Check also enabled Twitter users to tell the difference between the many celebrities on Twitter and users who were imitating them.
However, Musk implemented a change that would allow anyone to get verified for $8 a month.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.November 1, 2022
This led to some people worrying that users could pretend to be official accounts and get easily verified, making it hard for people to tell which accounts were real – and which weren't. And that's exactly what happened.
Despite the concerns and complaints, Musk was initially dismissive.
To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8November 2, 2022
By posting memes about people's complaints, it left many people feeling that he wasn't exactly taking the issue seriously.
pic.twitter.com/BYOBGBHOUANovember 2, 2022
However, as people predicted, verified accounts started popping up on Twitter, and while many of them were obviously parodies, because they had the 'Blue Tick', it became difficult to tell, especially with the more subtle accounts.
Unsurprisingly, the individuals and companies that were being parodied weren't too happy about this.
A brand new parody Twitter account that paid for verification and chose the display name of ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted Josh McDaniels was fired. The credible-looking tweet received nearly 10,000 engagements. Twitter suspended the account after two hours. https://t.co/diegQfkpA1November 9, 2022
Worryingly for Twitter, many brands started to announce that they would no longer advertise on the platform.
Musk himself fell victim to this, with countless fake accounts popping up claiming to be him - and with a Blue Tick to prove it. This seemed to be the final straw, as Musk then backtracked on some of the more lax elements of the new verification process.
Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bioNovember 11, 2022
Here's an example of how hard some of these fake accounts are to spot:
First account is the verified official one. Second is a $8 fake thanks to the Musk subscription. Easy to tell when you look at the follower count, very, very hard to tell when shared into your feed. Impossible actually without clicking through. HT @meemalee for spotting. pic.twitter.com/uKumOYRTeINovember 10, 2022
So, almost inevitably, it seems the Blue Tick verification process has been canned.
The chaos continues. Twitter pulls the plug on Twitter Blue, subscriptions and paid-for verification blue checkmark no longer available.November 11, 2022
As the tweet above states, the chaos continues - hence why we've started this live blog. What is going on?
Let's recap:
On October 30, Elon Musk, CEO and Founder of Space X, CEO of Tesla, finally took charge of Twitter after a long-winded buyout of the platform.
In under a month, we've seen the verification process become irrelevant and confusing due to the subscription service, Twitter Blue being able to grant any user a blue tick, and there's also been a huge firing of staff.
On November 11, Twitter Blue was removed entirely, and there's been silence from Musk since.
This was my first Tweet. I wonder what will be my last. https://t.co/pfruo5mqtUNovember 11, 2022
Here's our US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff showing his very first tweet back in 2007.
As it includes a bagel, it's already a great tweet in my book. The next question for me is, could his final tweet include a bagel to round it off?
Let's be clear - there's not going to be a replacement for Twitter. Nothing really can be, but there are potential alternatives.
With this in mind, we've got three for you to consider.
An interesting read by Hamish Hector here - there's a Chrome extension where it will tell you if a user has been verified with a blue tick, or if they've gained one by signing up to Twitter Blue when it was live.
Hit all-time high of active users todayNovember 11, 2022
So where do we stand so far?
Musk has yet to react to any development to Twitter today, which is surprising. The above is, at the time of posting this, his latest tweet.
However, we've noticed a small change with the ticks, where it's also blue when you're in dark mode on the site.
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