Twitter Begins Paying Musk's Favorite Posters, and Verified Users Are Angry

Elon Musk’s alleged business acumen continues worrying investors after he reported that Twitter had lost half its ad revenue since he took over the platform. The New York Times pegged that at 59%, and the platform’s prospects don’t seem likely to improve. Bigots and bot accounts are increasing in number, and with over half its workforce laid off, including the Child Safety Team, reports of accounts flagged for child porn remain up far longer than they should. For some reason, large corporations are reluctant to be associated with Twitter’s increasingly toxic brand.

Twitter is also being sued by a number of landlords, vendors, and former employees as the company’s debts pile up. There’s the $13 billion owed on Musk’s purchase, and millions in unpaid rent on its headquarters in San Francisco and other facilities in Boulder, CO. They owe laid-off workers $500 million in unpaid severance. Its “Twitter Blue” subscription service still has only 640,000 customers, many of whom stop paying for the service after only a month or two. That may be because Musk’s empty promises of larger follower counts failed to bear fruit despite pushing Blue customer tweets to the top of every feed which, if nothing else, made mass blocking of misogynists, anti-trans homophobes, and racists that much easier. It’s an unintended side effect rather than the intent, however, and it angers those same bigots as they discover views are unrelated to likes or follows.

To make matters worse, Musk began rolling out payments he promised Twitter “creators” when they signed up for Twitter Blue. In true Muskian fashion, he began with the least deserving.

Other than Beanie Boy, Musk also shelled out upwards of 25 grand to the worst commentators on the platform, including the Krassensteins and accused rapist and human trafficker, Andrew Tate. As other highly followed Blue Checks contacted Twitter to find out when they would get paid, they were told that only a “selected group” were receiving payment: In addition, only ads shown to other verified users counted toward these payments. Translation: Elon will only pay his bootlickers and the boneheads he’s trying to impress.

Hilariously, that group does not include Florida Man “@catturd2,” despite his 1.2 million followers. This truly terrible person first sang Musk’s praises when he took over Twitter, proclaiming it a victory for free speech. His tune changed, however, when, like so many others, he realized that his follower numbers weren’t increasing despite the supposed increase in exposure. In fact, his tweets are often used by people as blocklist opportunities. He publicly complained to Musk, and Boomered his way out of a paycheck.

A number of people have already noted how much this payment plan fits the definition of a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme, in that Musk and his sycophants encourage people to sign up for Twitter Blue despite virtually no chance they’ll ever drive enough engagement to warrant a paycheck. It will encourage the worst behavior as people vie for hate clicks. Financially speaking, it’s unlikely to significantly boost verification signups or encourage corporations to sign back up for ad space if the social environment becomes even more unpleasant.

Ultimately, Musk’s business instincts continue putting him deeper in the hole. New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has not reined in Musk’s impulsivity at all. With Threads already reporting 150 million accounts, it does feel like Twitter’s demise is accelerating.

(As is our custom, header images of Elon Musk are replaced with that of Lee Pace for aesthetic reasons, and with apologies to Lee Pace.)