I think the worst part about Twitter's new paid verification system is that it completely undermines what the system was originally created for, and reinforces the idea that it's supposed to be a symbol of status; something to say "I'm better than you"
Now granted, that's what it BECAME, because of how the stipulations for getting the verified badges meant that only the big accounts could conceivably get them.
But originally, Verification was what it says on the tin: a way to confirm your identity via a little badge next to your name, which can make impersonations of your account harder for people looking to do so.
Now as said, Twitter has admittedly been pretty favoritist in applying the system; you need to either have a certain amount of followers, or else be an official brand in order to apply, and even then, Twitter could find any arbitrary reason to deny your application; when people should be able to hand in any form of verification and get the badge, regardless of their branding. (In my opinion, at least.)
However, none of that changes the fact that the Twitter Verified was, in essence, a way to show all the people following you that you are who you say you are.
Cut to today, and people have it in their head that the Verification System is made only so that entitled people can feel special by having a funny little badge in their name.
And what does big boy Elon decide to do with it?
Why, slap a price tag on it, of course!
So now, people who rightfully earned the badge by virtue of... being the real deal, either have to
a) give up their badge and increase the risk of impersonators successfully tricking people becaue they don't wanna pay the $8 fee
b) pay the $8 fee every 30 days, just to keep the badge that tells others "yes, this is actually me!"
Couple that with the fact that Elon tried to defend this decision using a fucking WOJAK MEME!
(yes this IS a real thing that he tweeted; notice the badge?)
And it's obvious that the decision to make Twitter Verification a paid feature was only really done so that funny Tesla man can milk the site for all it's worth, (which according to him, is about $44bil) regardless of how little feature actually necessitates requiring payment.
