Yet another controversial change in Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is on the way and it has caused quite a bit of backlash from users already. It was recently announced that unlike before, premium users of the site will not be allowed to hide the blue tick marks on their account anymore.
Why do people not like the new feature?
The new feature, which was added as a perk for premium users of the social media platform, stated that those who have premium subscriptions will not be able to hide their blue ticks. Before, people who paid for X’s premium services but did not want the stigma that came with the blue tick were able to hide it so other users will not be able to see it. But this new feature will not allow them to do that anymore.
The sudden update was announced via a pop-up notification on Thursday. It also came right after the app introduced the new policy that any account that has over 2500 followers and a premium subscription will get a blue tick on their accounts.
But this is especially problematic for people who were already verified before Elon took over the app and started charging money for verification. Even though the blue tick feature coming with the premium subscription was justified by X as a measure to distinguish bot accounts from actual accounts, many people think that it is just another way to make money.
The feature might cause problem for some people
The new update is being framed as a perk for premium users of the app, but that is not the case. Ever since Elon Musk took over the social media platform and it started charging money for ‘premium’ features, people have been wary of it. There is also a lot of stigma around paying for the service for a verified badge, that is why, a lot of people who do subscribe to the premium version of the platform hide the blue tick mark.
However, after the new update, anyone who pays for the premium subscription will have to display their blue check mark. Critics of the subscription feature argue that it diminishes the value and authentication of a blue tick significantly.