Elon Musk appointed engineer Sriram Krishnan defends $8 charge for blue tick; Hails it first change in social media verification process

New Delhi: Since tech billionaire Elon Musk has taken the reins of Twitter, Indian-origin engineer Sriram Krishnan has emerged as a main player in Musk’ team, overlooking the entire transition process of Twitter.  Now Krishana has defended Elon Musk’s plan to charge $8 for blue tick to Twitter users irrespective of their popularity, followers, and power. In a Twitter thread, he has shared four points to shut down complainers.

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Several of the critiques of the $8 / verification are logically inconsistent.

“verification solves for impersonation, this will cause more”

1. using a CC/mobile checkout dramatically increases friction. And everyone caught impersonating will lose their money. — Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth (@sriramk) November 6, 2022

He argued that several of the critiques of the $8 for verification are logically inconsistent.

The first point he mentioned that it would help to catch impersonating accounts and scammers will lose money. In the second point, he said the current system is opaque and easily gamed. There are lots of people who should be verified and some shouldn’t be. $8 gives a constant path for anyone regardless of their level of notability.

2. there are lots of people who should be verified ( and often impersonated) and aren’t. And vice versa.

The current path on any social network is opaque and easily gamed.

$8 gives a consistent path for anyone regardless of their level of notability ( which is subjective). — Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth (@sriramk) November 6, 2022

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Third, he mentioned the current model also has spam issues and you will see lots of hacked blue check.

3. the current model also has severe spam issues ( check out any reply to @VitalikButerin or @elonmusk and you’ll see lots of hacked blue check accounts ).

$8 and giving everyone  makes those attacks less valuable. — Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth (@sriramk) November 6, 2022

Finally, he defended by saying verification on social media was originally meant to solve for this person is who they say they are. This will bring blue tick back to the original spirit of the design.

4. Finally, verification on social media was originally meant to solve for “this person is who they say they are”. It was NOT meant to say “we judge this person to be notable”.

This brings it back to the original spirit of the design. No more DMing employees for a favor. — Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth (@sriramk) November 6, 2022

He concluded by saying that there will be room for improvement and changes like other products. But he is excited to see the first change in how verification works in social media in a very long time.