The latest announcement of Twitter CEO Elon Musk is that verified twitter accounts have been prioritized. What this means is not clear as twitter is yet to elaborate on this new development. In the past there was uniformity among blue ticked verified accounts but now that uniformity is lacking. Legacy blue ticks disappeared and then reappeared. Large number of verified accounts with blue ticks may have most probably come into existence after new twitter policy of paid verification started. It is simply not clear that paid verified accounts will get preference over unpaid verified accounts or vice versa.

Paid subscription model seems to be purely a business centric model although arguments in favour of start of paid subscription policy can be various. If business is behind the decision of start of paid verification then it is not expected that those who have paid to get verified will not get preference over those who are enjoying free service. It is being said that twitter has restored blue tick of accounts with at least one million subscribers. If this is true then it is very much possible that verified accounts with large following may get preference.

Some people had argued that if legacy blue ticks are removed then twitter as a platform will get democratised and just. It is absolutely true that before new policy formulation, process of distributing blue ticks was not at all transparent, and only elite class people got blue tick verification. It was always felt that this needed to change. We need to wait for some time to see how much new verification policy can democratise twitter as a platform. This new policy seems to be replacement for legacy blue ticks removal policy as legacy blue ticks have already reappeared.

When twitter elaborates on new priority policy then only we can understand how much change can be expected from said new priority policy. If restored legacy blue tick accounts get priority then twitter will remain an elite dominated platform. You simply can’t ignore the fact that legacy blue tick accounts have accumulated followers in years and new paid verified blue tick accounts can’t match following of such accounts. It is possible that twitter may give preference to paid verified accounts over unpaid ones to further its business interests. One thing is clear from the latest tweet of Musk about prioritising verified accounts, it is complete disdain for the content. It is clear that content will not be the criteria for priority. Content will still be the king though.