"I pay, therefore I am" - Twitter paywalls features to "address bots"

[HenrySalayne]

Summary

 

Twitter's CEO announced on March 27th that only verified accounts AKA Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in polls. To be shown in the "For You" recommendations will also require a verified account. All these changes are allegedly "to address advanced AI bot swarms" and will take effect on April 15th.

 

Quotes

Quote

This might not sound like a big deal, but in order to be a verified user on the platform, you need to be subscribed to Twitter Blue, which at minimum costs $8 per month —more if you're subscribed through Apple's App Store. In addition, the 'For You' tab is great for discovery, as it uses an algorithm to populate the feed with Twitter users that you don't follow and shows you tweets that the platform thinks that you might find interesting or relevant.

 

My thoughts

How do other platforms manage to fight bots? Is a captcha no longer a viable option? Looking popular features behind a paywall will not make Twitter more attractive or profitable. This could just accelerate the demise of Twitter.

 

Edit:

Since a blue checkmark shows that you are verified and new users have to wait 90 days to receive a blue checkmark, how is this going to work? Are you now automatically verified if you have Twitter Blue and the impersonation spam is back on the menu?

 

 

Sources

https://www.xda-developers.com/twitter-verified-users-polls-for-you/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/only-verified-accounts-can-vote-twitter-polls-april-15-says-musk-2023-03-28/

 

[PcBeExpensive]

2 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

Summary

 

Twitter's CEO announced on March 27th that only verified accounts AKA Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in polls. To be shown in the "For You" recommendations will also require a verified account. All these changes are allegedly "to address advanced AI bot swarms" and will take effect on April 15th.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

How do other platforms manage to fight bots? Is a captcha no longer a viable option? Looking popular features behind a paywall will not make Twitter more attractive or profitable. This could just accelerate the demise of Twitter.

 

Sources

https://www.xda-developers.com/twitter-verified-users-polls-for-you/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/only-verified-accounts-can-vote-twitter-polls-april-15-says-musk-2023-03-28/

 

saw this today. It's bullshit, its so obviously for the money. Even the for you page will be removed unless you have the blue tick, what the hell. I used to like Elon and think he was smart, I was wrong. Next thing you will need to pay to get a twitter account.

[PcBeExpensive]

Also what bots are we trying to kill out? What do the bots do that they can't be here. Why is he being so vague, this screams I WANT MONEY to me.

[RedRound2]

Slowly changing Twitter into the 'platform for the privileged (& rich bots)'.

 

And somehow this fits into his idea of addressing inequality, smh. 

 

If he really wanted to tackle bot problem, you can ask users to provide some form of KYC - like a phone number or government ID. I know not everyone will be a fan of this move, but this would actually go about solving the problem equally for everyone instead of segregating the crowd based on who has disposable income to spend on such a unnecessary first world luxury status of Twitter Blue

[Kaas0001]

6 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

saw this today. It's bullshit, its so obviously for the money. Even the for you page will be removed unless you have the blue tick, what the hell. I used to like Elon and think he was smart, I was wrong. Next thing you will need to pay to get a twitter account.

Ofcourse its for money.

He bought it for 40 billion, and yesterday (or the day before) he said Twitter was worth only 20 billion

[Doobeedoo]

Hah bots, sure. Also lol paying for social media site and Twitter out of one...uuuuu..

[Blqckqut]

24 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

Summary

Twitter's CEO announced on March 27th that only verified accounts AKA Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in polls. To be shown in the "For You" recommendations will also require

plot twist, he just wants to make twitter fall just like the rest of us, but wans some quick cash before he ruins it lol

[Spotty]

The poster of the poll should be able to choose if the poll is open to all users or only available to those with Twitter Blue.

 

This change might be fine for somebody like Musk with a huge following that gets millions of responses to a poll but it ignores all the people with only a small following who might only get a dozen or so responses to a poll, many of which probably aren't coming from Twitter Blue members. By slashing the number of users who can participate in polls this will effectively kill [posting] polls for everyone but those who have substantial reach and influence on the platform.

[Needfuldoer]

Surely this has nothing to do with it.

 

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

Surely this has nothing to do with it.

Internal memo to all Twitter employees: "You are required to vote no to this pole, non-compliance will result in immediate dismissal"

[HenrySalayne]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

The poster of the poll should be able to choose if the poll is open to all users or only available to those with Twitter Blue.

"Free" users (we would have simply called them users a few month ago) could solve a capture to vote, if "bots" are an actual problem. This would be an annoyance factor to "incentivise" the subscription.

[darknessblade]

Depending on how it works I think this would be a setting you can turn off, as now it would be that you do not see post of people without blue-check.

 

 

[porina]

58 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Even the for you page will be removed unless you have the blue tick

I think most if not all Twitter users I know would actually call this a good thing. Does anyone actually like the "for you" feed? Let's run a poll on it!

 

14 minutes ago, Spotty said:

By slashing the number of users who can participate in polls this will effectively kill [posting] polls for everyone but those who have substantial reach and influence on the platform.

This was my thought also. I'm so insignificant even the bots don't show up  

 

7 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

"Free" users (we would have simply called them users a few month ago)

Elon needs to play p2w games. Whales need f2p players to exist otherwise they wont have anyone to be superior to and stop paying.

[PcBeExpensive]

 

1 minute ago, porina said:

I think most if not all Twitter users I know would actually call this a good thing. Does anyone actually like the "for you" feed? Let's run a poll on it!

The for you area is how you find other people with content you may like, people would not be getting as many followers as they are now without the for you page.

[PcBeExpensive]

23 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Surely this has nothing to do with it.

 

Though he would abide by the poll

[porina]

Just now, PcBeExpensive said:

The for you area is how you find other people with content you may like, people would not be getting as many followers as they are now without the for you page.

The most common complaint I see about social media in general is the algorithm shows irrelevant stuff, and not the stuff people are following which is why people are there in the first place. Finding the following chronological setting in old Twitter is the best thing most people find. The recent push back to "for you" resulted in posts from many people I follow saying they're seeing crap on the timeline until they're told to switch to "following" and restore the desired behaviour.

 

"for you" doesn't work well as I feel there's advertising money involved. It's not what you like, it's what advertisers want you to like. 

[PcBeExpensive]

12 minutes ago, porina said:

The most common complaint I see about social media in general is the algorithm shows irrelevant stuff, and not the stuff people are following which is why people are there in the first place. Finding the following chronological setting in old Twitter is the best thing most people find. The recent push back to "for you" resulted in posts from many people I follow saying they're seeing crap on the timeline until they're told to switch to "following" and restore the desired behaviour.

 

"for you" doesn't work well as I feel there's advertising money involved. It's not what you like, it's what advertisers want you to like. 

yep, that part I understand. For You is a big for advertising and money but then that makes you wonder, why is Elon making it a limited feature?

[porina]

1 minute ago, PcBeExpensive said:

yep, that part I understand. For You is a big for advertising and money but then that makes you wonder, why is Elon making it a limited feature?

According to OP you need to pay if you want the chance to be featured in "for you" but it doesn't sound like viewing it is being limited. So it is a form of p2w for those people who are trying to grow on Twitter.

[PcBeExpensive]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

According to OP you need to pay if you want the chance to be featured in "for you" but it doesn't sound like viewing it is being limited. So it is a form of p2w for those people who are trying to grow on Twitter.

ok. From what i saw he said for you was going if you dont have blue.

[porina]

1 minute ago, PcBeExpensive said:

ok. From what i saw he said for you was going if you dont have blue.

Emphasis added:

Quote

To be shown in the "For You" recommendations will also require a verified account.

 

[PcBeExpensive]

Yep just checked again u were right, I honestly am not a fan  of that. never knew P2W would come to social media too.

[Needfuldoer]

28 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

never knew P2W would come to social media too.

Once a platform can be leveraged as a weapon, it's inevitable. Throw money at the thing (either through advertising or "some are more equal than others" features), and you get your message out in front of millions of eyeballs. The platform gets your money, but your voice becomes louder than your opposition's unless they throw at least as much money into the pot.

[SorryClaire]

The more Elon speaks the more im glad i dont engage on Twitter in positive capacity anymore. Only ambivalence or just plain criticism.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, PcBeExpensive said:

Yep just checked again u were right, I honestly am not a fan  of that. never knew P2W would come to social media too.

Economic and social classes exist in physical life. If it happens naturally there whether people like or agree with it, or not, then it's most likely going to happen online/virtual life.

[mr moose]

Meh, I can't think of a single reason anyone would want to rely on a twitter poll for anything other than maybe proving an opinion is more popular than another opinion when we ignore facts.