X implements new reply controls for verified users

Verified user privileges on X: In a recent update on X, formerly known as Twitter, users can now prevent unverified accounts from engaging with their posts. This modification comes approximately 11 months after Musk introduced paid verification as part of Twitter Blue, offering blue checkmark labels to individuals for a subscription fee of $7.99 per month. 

The adjustment also signifies a potential challenge for those not opting for this service (excluding accounts compelled into verified status) to counter misinformation, a concern highlighted by researchers that have been on the rise.

This update further sidelines the non-premium X users who are not opting for exclusive membership of the platform. This step can also be seen in the light to push the present non-paying users of the platform to opt for a paid verified status. While on the other hand, the advocates of the steps claim that restricting replies to accounts verified through payment, phone numbers, or even government-issued IDs, aims to curb harassment, trolling, and the spread of misinformation.

However, no other unpaid options such as government-issued IDs or phone numbers were set as a criteria of engagement. Apart from that, the persistent presence of bots on X with verified labels also put a question on the intent of the social media platform. 

Verifying the verification

While sharing the update with the users, Elon Musk tweeted, ‘verifying verification’ to which only verified users could reply. If you are an unpaid X user you will see the following message.

However, if you are someone who has subscribed to the platform, you will see the message saying, “Verified accounts or people mentioned by @user can reply.”

With this update, the unpaid users will further fall down in the social hierarchy of the platform where they were already dominated by the paid users in the conversation threads of a post. Paid user tweets are shown higher in a thread and now with this, users can choose to interact only with other paid users. 

Surprisingly, even non-paid users can choose to interact only with the paid users as the ‘only verified account can reply’ option is available to all users on the platform.