Undeniably, verifiably, singing the Twitter Blues

Twitter’s premium service was poor before Elon Musk paid US$44 billion ($73b) to take over the social network. Amazingly, it’s got a lot worse. To fully appreciate my pain as a Twitter Blue subscriber, let’s first quickly rewind.

I subscribed to the US$4.99 Twitter Blue when it launched two years ago, just to see what it was like. There just wasn’t much to it. You could upload a video of up to 10 minutes length (free users are restricted to 2 minutes, 20 seconds). I could see that appealing to some social media professionals, though the blunt truth is that few people will watch beyond two minutes of social content.

You also got a 30-second window after you hit Send to edit a tweet before it went live. But there was no option to edit a tweet after it was published. So it was no different from pausing for half a minute to proofread your text, for free, before posting.

Then there was some faff around different coloured icons and so forth.

I cancelled my sub after a couple of months.

Under its new owner, Musk, an “upgrade” of Twitter Blue was rushreleased, with the price now US$7.99 a month.

Musk said only those who paid would have a Verified mark (historic blue ticks will be cleared out).

I do like my blue tick — and I wanted to road-test the new Twitter Blue — so I signed up again.

I wish I hadn’t.

There is now no authentication process to receive a blue tick. All you have to do to be “verified” is agree to pay Twitter US$7.99 per month.

Immediately, a slew of Musk foes bought a monthly sub to get a blue tick for ridiculous accounts, including (as I type) a verified Eli Lilly that claimed: “We are excited to announce that insulin is free now”, and a verified Ted Cruz account posting obscenities.

These over-the-top examples are being deleted by Twitter, but the broader point is that the value of a blue tick has been totally debased. If you see the verified mark next to the name of a celebrity, journalist or company, you now don’t know if they are the real thing or an imitator — only that they were a party willing to pay US$7.99 per month.

An “Official” label — which, like the old blue tick, can only be allocated by Twitter, not bought — will effectively function as the new Verified. The blue tick is for chumps.

The ability to upload 10-minute videos is still promised on a Twitter help forum, but is not in the new product description. And after subscribing to the new Twitter Blue, I was still restricted to 2 minutes, 20 seconds.

And although the ability to edit a tweet up to five times within 30 minutes is a beta (test) feature for some users. Not for me. I’m back on the 30-second preview window — which effectively just means I’ll have to wait half a minute for each tweet to post (something that’s seriously painful if you’re posting a thread of replies).

There’s no priority support (unless it’s a billing issue, and you don’t go ad-free).

You might well ask at this point: “What’s the point of paying US$7.99 per month?” I cannot tell you. Elon, can I have my money back? Cheers.