Here’s the BBC today: Elon Musk’s X fined €120m over ‘deceptive’ blue ticks

“Musk’s shake-up to verification formed part of a sweeping set of changes he made after acquiring Twitter in late 2022.

It saw the previous system – which functioned similarly to other social media verification schemes displaying someone as verified if they supply proof of who they are – cast out and replaced with one tied to its Premium subscription tier.”

That’s not true. The old Twitter Blue check system reserved Blue checks for the elite. Peons were not eligible for a Blue check.

See Twitter Blue Checks – Social Panic

Your account must represent or otherwise be associated with a prominently recognized individual or brand, in line with the notability criteria described below. In addition to confirming the identity of the controller of the account, Twitter will Verify the following types of accounts based on the criteria described. In all categories, Twitter may independently confirm qualifying affiliation through business partnerships or direct outreach.

The media, like the journalist’ish at BBC were the elite eligible for old style Bluechecks. The elite got upset when their elite status was taken away.

I paid for a Bluecheck on X as it permits much longer posts, and was verified through my own domain coldstreams.com. A paid account also provides unlimited access to Grok AI.

The EU has decided that the Bluecheck is sacrosanct – and must be verified to certify that the individual is an important person or some such.

Reporters, the BBC, the EU, etc, have invented a definition of Blue checks that X does not use. They are upset, actually, because once upon a time, they were the elite with a Blue check. The Blue check doesn’t really mean anything any more – they are just upset they lost their eliteness.