--- title: "Twitter Leak: Elon Musk Planning to Charge for Blue Checkmarks But Not Actually Verify Identify" description: "According to documents obtained by the New York Times, getting verified on Twitter won't even require users to authenticate their identity." date: "2022-11-04" modified: "2022-11-04" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-leak-elon-musk-identity" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Twitter Leak: Elon Musk Planning to Charge for Blue Checkmarks But Not Actually Verify Identify ![According to documents obtained by the New York Times, getting verified on Twitter won't even require users to authenticate their identity.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Fire Sale Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter might be a [cascading disaster](), but you can't say it's been uneventful. To see some truly eyebrow raising decision making, look no further than Musk's handling of Twitter's verification system in the form of that exalted Blue Check. The long and short of it is that Musk has proposed packaging the check mark badge with Twitter's previously separate "Twitter Blue" subscription service. That means that verified accounts would have to start paying to keep their check marks, even though verification has been free since it was first implemented. That itself is already questionable, but according to internal documents [obtained by *The New York Times*](), Twitter Blue subscribers won't even be required to authenticate their identities to receive the verified check mark. That's a terrible look for at least two reasons. First, it sounds an awful lot like Musk just wants to sell trendy badges to gullible people who want fake clout. And second, if the verification process really is as lax as it sounds, the change could allow scammers to impersonate any public figure they want. ## Gutting the Platform Musk is quickly stumbling into the decision too, because the documents say that the new Twitter Blue program will start on November 7 in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. That's not a lot of time to prepare for something that could potentially shift the entire website's paradigm. At the very least, the documents note that there would be an "interim" period allowing old-school verified accounts to keep their badges before eventually being asked to pay, as well as plans to allow government accounts to remain verified without subscribing. Nevertheless, it's hard to conceive what the point of having a verified badge will be if anyone can get one without proving who they are, making it not only meaningless, but dangerous. But at the end of the day, it's just one of many of Musk's harebrained but cynical schemes to wring money out of a website that he was forced into paying far too much for. And he hasn't been subtle about his maneuvering either. Musk has [publicly]() groveled at the feet of [advertisers who smell blood in the water](), embarrassingly [beefed with AOC](), and [pleaded with Stephen King]() to pay the $8 for the fake check mark. To show how much he really cares about the company, Musk has already gone ahead with [laying off]() large chunks of Twitter's 7,500 person workforce, too. **More on Twitter:** *[Twitter Employees Kept Posting Jokes Until the Moment They Got Fired]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()