Elon Musk Ends Shaquille O’Neal Inspired Twitter Decision With Vengeance Fueled Comment

It seems like Elon Musk has decided to end what started 13 years ago and almost immediately after buying Twitter, Musk announced that the company will start charging verified accounts. Musk stated that Twitter will charge $8 per month for the blue tick, which indicates that the account is verified. The news broke on November 1, 2022.

The business mogul recently acquired ownership of Twitter for a whopping $44 billion. The offer to buy the social media platform was first proposed in early 2022. The acquisition then began on April 14, 2022. About six months later, on October 27, both parties sealed the contract and Musk became the official owner of the billion-dollar company. However, Musk immediately became the primary target of criticism after he revealed his decision to charge money for the blue ticks.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls***. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month. This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” tweeted Musk.

Amidst all the criticism, Musk tweeted a single sentence on his official Twitter account. It seemed like it was a silent message in response to all the harsh criticisms he was facing.

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Twitter co-founder Biz Stone started the blue tick in 2009 after NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal became a target for impersonation.

Shaquille O’Neal inspired the blue tick idea

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal joined Twitter in November 2008. Back then, Shaq reported that part of the reason he created the account was because someone had been impersonating him on the social media platform. After the news got out, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone stated that they were working out a way to validate accounts. Furthermore, Stone said that Shaq’s was the first impersonation case he heard about on Twitter.

In June 2009, Stone announced that the company was testing out ‘verified accounts’. Stone explained that the experiment would first begin with verifying popular personalities who are mostly at the risk of being impersonated.

It has been 14 years since the blue badge was introduced. Throughout the years, the system has proved to be open to error. In 2021, author Cormac McCarthy’s agent stated that someone else have been using an attested account in McCarthy’s name. It seems like, Musk has now come up with his own version of a solution to the impersonation case.

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