As Twitter and Facebook both now offer paid subscription, what impact is it having?
OK, it’s time to confess — I have subscribed to Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter).
«Why are you giving money to the world’s richest man?» shouted my friend.
Admittedly, she had a point, but I did it for two reasons. Firstly, because I was aware of a few fake profiles of me floating around, and subscribing offers verification of sorts.
And secondly, because I wanted access to X’s AI chatbot, Grok, and this was the simplest way to get it. I paid for it myself — it wasn’t a BBC expense.
The reputation of subscribers is so mixed on X that there is an option to hide the «blue tick» that appears by your name once you subscribe.
There’s a profound sense of distaste among some established users about «buying your way in» — gaining extra visibility and profile by paying for it, rather than getting it on merit by posting good content.
I didn’t really expect much to change in terms of my own experience of using the platform. But there are improvements.
The obvious perks are being able to write longer posts and edit them — and I’ve appreciated the reduction in ads. On the other hand, now I’m paying for the service with cold hard cash, I get even more annoyed about the spam and the bots which blight it.
Johnny Ryan, a former advertising executive who now challenges the industry as a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, says that in some ways advertisers are easier pay lords to please than subscribers.
«The advertiser in general doesn’t give a damn about what the content is,» he says. «Every now and then there’s a scandal, but in general they’re not that political.»
There is an old adage «if you’re not paying for the product, you ARE the product» — meaning, if you are using something for free, then the company which owns it is taking the data you put on it and charging firms to advertise at you instead.
It’s an established and lucrative business model. «Data is the new oil!» was a bold catchphrase I heard a lot in the tech industry, a few years ago.
