The short notice ultimatum sent to Twitter employees seems to have resulted in mass exodus, and word has it that some key employees have left the company.
Elon Musk’s flagship policy after taking over Twitter involved a revamp of the company’s Blue subscription service and changes to how accounts were verified. Blue checkmarks were initially handed out to people who were notable in things like politics, media, and entertainment. Musk proposed to do away with what he called the «lords and peasants» system Twitter had used since checkmarks were first implemented. Instead of having to meet a set of criteria and be notable enough in a field to get a badge, Musk wanted to give one to anyone willing to pay his company $8.
Despite causing a stir pre-takeover by promising to implement a free speech platform, the focus seemed to shift to the New Blue post-takeover and the billionaire allegedly had teams working round the clock to hit tight deadlines and finish the project as soon as possible. The updated version of Blue was launched the day after the 2022 U.S. Midterm elections and brought with it all of the chaos many people predicted it would.
The original verification badge wasn’t meant to be a status symbol; it was designed to show an account was authentic and owned by the person or business it claimed to be.
