Previously, getting a blue tick meant you were an organization or person considered to be of public importance, such as a celebrity, politician or journalist. Users could apply for a tick, but would then have to go through a process to prove they were who they claimed to be. These people still have blue ticks on Twitter, but have now been joined by others using a separate system where they simply pay $8 (£7) for the privilege. Musk took control of Twitter in a $44 billion buyout in October, quickly laying off half its staff — about 3,700 people. Those who were fired included moderators and teams responsible for verifying identity on the website. In a public meeting Wednesday intended to reassure nervous advertisers, Twitter’s CEO said its new verification process means “someone has to have a phone and a credit card and $8.00 a month … so that’s the bar”. Previously dedicated Twitter teams reviewed accounts looking for a blue tick and checking for evidence that the user was genuine. A move to replace the previous blue tick verification method with a gray tick, subtitled “official” and appearing alongside the blue tick, was introduced and then removed again within hours of going live. The billionaire CEO responded to a Twitter user wondering where his new “official” gray tick went by saying: “I killed it.” “Please note that Twitter will be doing a lot of stupid things in the coming months,” he added in a later post, hinting that more feature changes are coming to Twitter soon. Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar also criticized Twitter for emailing his agency to notify him of hundreds of job cuts at the social media company’s Irish offices. Mr Varadkar said Twitter had not broken any laws in the way it announced the layoffs, but said he was unimpressed by how Elon Musk handled the situation. Mr Musk also confirmed on Thursday that all Twitter staff would have to work in the office five days a week, ending remote work. Mr Varadkar told the Indo Daily podcast: “They did it in an unusual way via email, but they didn’t actually break any laws – because none of these dismissals have actually taken place. “The law is you have to give people 30 days’ notice before the layoff takes effect so they haven’t broken any rules. But they did – not in the best way, frankly.” The former Irish president said Stripe and Meta had handled their recent job cuts much better. Twitter has been approached for comment.
