Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Heidi Klum/// Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media
Elon Musk has wasted no time bringing drastic changes to Twitter, but one person, in particular, is not happy about it – entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
Cuban, a businessman himself, took to the popular platform on Wednesday night to express his frustration with Musk’s new Twitter Blue subscription.
Twitter Blue allows any user to pay $7.99 a month to have the once-sought-after verification marker appear next to their name.
This was just one of many changes Musk promised once he took over the company last month. Yesterday, the subscription went live.
Cuban tweeted out a message to Musk at 8:32pm, saying “From one entrepreneur to another, for when you have your customer service hat on. I just spent too much time muting all the newly purchased checkmark accts in an attempt to make my verified mentions useful again. Hope this helps.”
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1590532935899570176
Musk would reply at 2:51 am, saying, “It’s working for me. That said, we can definitely make the verified mentions tab more usable.”
The Shark Tank star argued back, citing that Musk only followed 130 people while Cuban follows over 2,000, making the process much more difficult.
Cuban continued to bash the plan, telling one commentator the subscription model “killed the most valuable part of Twitter, the ability to quickly and easily find information from sources I have chosen to trust.”
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1590539742017294336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1590539742017294336%7Ctwgr%5E8a13ee803505d2f25d06db8535f12f24d78f2c5b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2022%2Fdigital%2Fnews%2Fmark-cuban-slams-elon-musk-twitter-verification-plan-nightmare-1235429190%2F
According to Variety, Cuban received lots of pushback from the post with users asking why their newly verified accounts didn’t matter as much as those with “legacy blue check marks.”
“The value of Twitter to me is the speed at which I can get and share information. Just like you use it. BUT, Twitter stands out because while it can be a rabbit hole at times, There is significant time savings because of the legacy blue check mark curation that twitter has done,” Cuban said.
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1590551499972935680
Cuban added that the update made it difficult to sift out legitimate blue check-marked accounts from trolls.
“And when it came to hate/trolls, it was rare from blue checks. But when it happened the engagement was epic. Now I have no way to filter the hate from the new checks, other than constant muting. Buy a check – Crush someone’s verified mentions,” he elaborated.
Cuban suggested that Musk had a very serious decision to make that would either harm or save Twitter’s credibility.
“Bottom line is that you have a decision to make. Stick with the new Twitter that democratizes every tweet by paid accounts and puts the onus on all users to curate for themselves. Or bring back Twitter curation. One makes Twitter time and information efficient.The other is awful,” he said.
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1590551547938603008
“Your business. Your call,” Cuban signed off.
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