[imagesource:pixabay]

The latest jumpscare in the Twitter saga has people in a frenzy trying to figure out who is ‘real’ and who paid for a blue tick.

Everyone seems mystified by the thought process behind the ‘rocket go boom’ tech billionaire, Elon Musk’s latest curveball, but since Twitter no longer has an official communications department, you’re guess is as good as mine.

Quite funny that. To think the company that manages the world’s most loved way to communicate has no comms department. All the requests for information by the millions of people who rely on their platform must be taxing. It’s better to just shut that shit down.

But Elon loves swinging for the fences and then running to catch the ball, only to drop it. The trick is to pretend you did it all on purpose and then swing again.

So what’s the big deal with the blue tick? Well, in a world where Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Christiano Ronaldo are among the top five most followed accounts, a few lines of text can send shockwaves hurtling through politics, sports, business, and the entertainment industry.

Twitter is powerful, and the ‘verified’ blue tick always provided a measure of trust that your favourite celeb’s words were indeed legit. If Obama with a blue tick says “We Naruto run the White House at 5’Oclock”, you grab your Pumas and you head for the door.

But now everything is in disarray as Twitter removed all the blue ticks last week in a bid to boost revenue by selling the ticks right back at $8 (R145) a month.

Since then a lot of well-known people and institutions have come forward claiming their ticks have been reinstated despite not having subscribed to the monthly premium. Among these are celebrities like Ricky Gervais and Neil Gaiman. According to Mybroadband, even the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has tweeted their surprise at receiving a verified status.

For the curious, I’m not subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t given anyone my phone number. What a sad, muddled place this has become. pic.twitter.com/Ju125xyoUx

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 23, 2023

After two days our account got the blue tick back. It seems it has something to do with ‘1M+ followers’ accounts changes made by Twitter.

Yet, we seem obliged to clarify that the Memorial never subscribed and paid for the Twitter Blue as it might be implied. pic.twitter.com/dyXPlSzEas

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) April 23, 2023

What in the world is going on when Elon Musk and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum are in a confused spat over a blue tick? We could ask Twitter, but their communications department is as non-existent as the last SpaceX rocket, remember?

But there appeared to be key exceptions, with the profiles of stars like actor Ryan Reynolds still missing a blue tick he once held, despite having more than 21 million followers.

Quite how the blue ticks were awarded, if it was indeed on purpose, is just as confusing. Several famous figures who have died seem to have subscribed to the monthly service from beyond the grave, like the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018.

This is obscene pic.twitter.com/Fgk4KuZqIH

— Mohamad Bazzi (@BazziNYU) April 23, 2023

We’re sure Elon will figure it out as he goes, and soon everyone will have a tick or mosquito, or whatever is needed to distinguish the real from the fake. If there even is a way to do that anymore.

Musk has bought himself into this game, so he had better catch the ball this time.

On the bench is Jack Dorsey, who is warming up with Twitter 2.0.

[source:mybroadband]