Elon Musk’s reversal on blue checkmarks shows his desperation

Elon Musk's reversal on blue checkmarks shows his desperation
by mishaderidder.eth13093 🥝 • 3y • cnn.com
AI summary of the linked article

Elon Musk has restored blue checkmarks for many journalists, celebrities and other prominent accounts on X, reversing his earlier plan to charge users $8 a month for the badge. The columnist writes that X told recipients they had been declared "an influential member of the community" and given a complimentary X Premium subscription that X could cancel at its discretion. The article states that most journalists who once held the checkmark declined to pay, while many paid users were Musk supporters, right-wing trolls and others who would not have qualified under the legacy system. It also cites Sensor Tower data, reported by NBC News, showing X's daily usage down 23% over the last year and daily active users down an additional 18%.

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Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking…

- from the tale of the Sneetches by Dr. Seuss published in 1961


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haha yes, but also all of this bitter rhetoric from CNN distracts from the fact that this might actually be a smart move, whether it was planned or not. Because now giving the blue status back to celebs makes having the blue status feel a bit more premium for all regular paying users.

Gone are the days when Musk poked the journalists and celebrity class about paying him $8 a month. Now, Musk is so desperate to see their return, he’s willing to crown them with the blue badge and restore their accounts to “lord” status. That says it all.

I actually have to hand it to Trump and Elon and everyone who said that the mainstream media is stupid. This is stupid. Nobody would write an article about me or Dan Romero being "desperate" when we iterate on a product, even if it would genuinely be a desperate move; as long as we'd be moving, that'd be a good thing. Yeah, Elon had a big mouth beforehand OK, but idk this article is just gossip-level communication at this point.
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