The Toxicity Of Blue Tick Culture

When Twitter introduced its verification program, it was simply to provide confidence in communication and authenticate the identities of notable, oft impersonated public figures. By 2018, the ever elusive verification checkmark became an elitist club who were guaranteed priority placement in news feeds, “Who to follow” suggestions and hashtag searches.

And now, Twitter have gifted those baring the blue badge of honor an even greater privilege- advertising to the casual user by inserting their posts into the newsfeeds of users who don’t follow them to encourage expanse of influence to those who already have it.

I started seeing random people showing up in my timeline a few weeks ago; Names I didn’t recognize who had posted benign statuses that were entirely irrelevant to me or my interests. These posts contained a small header informing me that someone I follow also follows this individual implying that I should too. I imagine it was about this time that people branded with the verified check mark saw a significant spike in followers as well, purely for having had the benefit of this free advertising.