By Mayank Chhaya-
That’s what the world has come to now. If Elon Musk does not verify people’s existence on social media with a silly blue verification check or tick mark, their self-worth plummets faster than the capricious billionaire’s fortunes.
As Musk en masse withdrew the verified mark from a large number of Twitter handles on April 20, people across the world responded both amused and bemused. Some felt as if they were abruptly stripped of their identities. The idea that an arbitrary mark attached to one’s name given by a digital platform with no discernible real-world value could become a subject of global disquiet is a 21st century absurdity engendered by the rise of the information age.
As someone who was never verified and never attempted to get verified, the move by Musk is of no consequence to me. I have chosen not to subscribe to obtain the mark by paying $8 to Musk who would tell me something I already know. I know I was verified when I was born. There is no need to assert my identity daily.
Since I joined Twitter in March 2009, I have “amassed” a staggering 524 followers as of writing this piece. That works out to be about 37 followers a year. Therefore, I have no illusions about my social media influence. It is so minor as to be non-existent. There are those who lose or gain more followers in an hour than my total number of followers accumulated over 14 years.
As of yesterday, social media superstars such as Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian in the U.S. and those such as Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar and others had been stripped of the check mark. Even Bill Gates and Pope Francis lost their verification. Some like Bachchan and Tendulkar dealt with it humor while others appear not to care.
If you are the Pope, you have already been verified by a power slightly higher than Musk, I suppose.
The eternally best-selling author, Stephen King, who had said some months ago that he would refuse to pay for the check mark, continues to have his. Musk, in keeping with his peculiar sense of humor, has paid for it just to needle King, it seems.
King tweeted this, “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.” Perhaps King could find a plot for his next mystery novel in that.
Apart from King, Musk has also paid for actor William Shatner and basketball star LeBron James’s verification marks.
In its original form, the check mark created a sort of gated community on Twitter where the elite resided exclusively as the hoi polloi, the multitudes, pressed their noses against the glass wall peering inside to see what life looked like for the famous and the rich.
The original check mark practice was frozen for four years by pre-Musk owners of Twitter but was reinstated in 2021 without any significant changes.
Ever since Musk introduced the $8 subscription, there has been a glut of verified accounts, including by many impersonators.
It should tell us everything about the ludicrous verification practice that Musk had tweeted that the “final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20”, the day celebrated across America marijuana users. It is the cannabis day.
One has to be smoking something akin to that to accord the blue check mark any importance at all. On the other hand, though, those smoking weed would be too laidback to care or notice.
