While many have been celebrating the premature death of Twitter since Technoking Elon Musk purchased it in October for the outrageous price of $44 billion, every day brings new horrors. Indeed, April 20 was a complete nightmare of a fever dream.
In a coordinated move, Musk got rid of all previously verified users — well, almost all of them. But that’s only the beginning.
It soon became clear that Musk would continue the previous upper management’s decision to verify whoever they pleased. So, who did Musk verify without their permission? Horror author Stephen King, Star Trek captain William Shatner, and four-time NBA Champion LeBron James. That’s it, three celebrities who could afford verification if they wanted it.
King and James were both quick to let everyone know they hadn’t paid the Chief Twit a cent. In a cringe-inducing response to King tweeting that he hadn’t signed up for Twitter Blue and hadn’t provided a phone number, Musk said “You’re welcome namaste.”
Read more: Musk Twitter scams pivot to paid ads that shill Mars trips and brain chips
Things keep getting worse
What’s become clear is that buried in the programming for Twitter, there’s still proof of legacy verification: many users have shown that by utilizing the search function, anyone, once verified, still appears when a specific search query is made. That’s a good thing, seemingly.
But the bad news is, well, the news.
That’s right, in what many people assumed was an accident or error during the blue check purge (but which now appears to have been absolutely on purpose) Musk got rid of all ‘state-affiliated media’ tags. Why? To own the libs? Or something else?
Unfortunately, this will come at a painful price: individuals working for propaganda outlets like the Russian RT or China’s Xinhua and Global Times are now just normal users who can pay for a blue check and get more eyeballs on their tweets.
In case you’re unaware, these media companies are entirely owned and controlled by the state (nothing like the BBC or NPR, which Musk had singled out for a new, stupider ‘state-affiliated media’ program he briefly trotted out) and publish legitimate propaganda.
So, as some of the last remaining useful bits of Twitter burn in the $44 billion wreckage of a single narcissist, love it or hate it, it’s worth reflecting on what a truly unbelievable sight this is to behold.
Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Source: https://protos.com/twitter-is-collapsing-and-its-hilarious/