Many Twitter users have added a mouse emoji next to their name to protest Elon Musk’s plan to charge users $8 a month for a blue “verified” check mark. Twitter is undergoing a series of changes after Elon Musk took over late last month, including revamping its homepage for logged out users. While the original homepage displayed a simple username and password prompt for users to log into their accounts, the new homepage now displays trending news and tweets.
However, not all changes are innocuous. On the first day after taking over, Musk fired former CEO Parag Agarwal (Parag Agarwal) and established himself as the CEO of the company. Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Head of Legal and Policy Vijaya Gadde were also fired along with Agarwal. As for the controversial new fee for the “verified” checkmark, Musk initially proposed charging $20, but eventually settled on $8 after many users objected. One of the users who opposed the proposal was acclaimed horror novelist Stephen King, who threatened to leave Twitter if the company started charging for “verified” badges.
Wednesday, #RatVerfieid become the first. This topic quickly became the number one trending topic on Twitter in the US after many users started using hashtags to protest the $8 a month subscription fee proposed by Musk for the badge. blue verification signal. This hashtag was created by Twitter user and cartoonist alex cohenhe urged others on the platform to use a mouse emoji next to their name instead of paying Musk to verify.
Objection to verification fees
By Wednesday afternoon, the movement had begun to emerge, with many users adding mouse emojis and using #RatVerified The card serves as a sign not to accept the verification fee proposed by Musk. Cohen also created a twitter poll, asking users who they think will win — Musk’s $44 billion or the rats. More than 44,000 people voted and Rat won overwhelmingly by a margin of 93.6%.
talk to Weekly About his creative drive #RatVerifiedCohen says that despite its flaws, the current verification system is still a better option for Twitter because it “Helps users detect fake accounts and identify trusted information sources.” He said that paying for verification not only didn’t solve any of the prominent issues surrounding verification, but made things worse by making Twitter harder to navigate. He signed it and said: “I’d rather have a mouse next to my name than support a paid game tweet, obviously others feel the same way!”