Twitter has a secret list of VIPs who get priority treatment

Twitter reportedly has a secret list of VIPs who get increased visibility on the platform. According to Platformer, the company monitors the accounts of these VIP users to artificially boost the visibility of their tweets. The list has existed for several months and contains around 35 celebrities, journalists, and other prominent personalities, including Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

This list was created after Musk suggested last month that Twitter’s algorithm was suppressing his tweets. He made engineers roll out changes that resulted in his tweets briefly going rampant on the platform. A report from the same source claimed that the company artificially boosted Musk’s tweets to give him more visibility and engagement. It appears a few other people are also getting similar priority treatment.

Internal documents obtained by the publication show that Musk is accompanied by US President Joe Biden, NBA star LeBron James, Daily Wire founder and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Pseudonymous conservative commentator @catturd2, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), YouTube personality MrBeast, and journalists Matt Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald, Noah Smith, and Adrian Wojnarowski.

These VIPs get artificial visibility on Twitter. Their tweets reportedly bypass visibility limitations on “For You” recommendations. They also get priority access to customer support. Whenever VIP users file a complaint, Twitter engineers are flagged and they look into it on a priority basis over others (via).

Twitter is removing legacy blue ticks to “treat everyone equally”

This news comes shortly after Twitter announced that it will soon start removing legacy verified checkmarks. The coveted blue ticks will disappear on April Fool’s day, i.e. April 1. The company wants people to buy a Twitter Blue subscription for a verified tick next to their handle. Elon Musk, who has always labeled Twitter’s old verification system “corrupt,” said the move is about equal treatment of all users on the platform.

“It’s more about treating everyone equally. There shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities imo [in my opinion],” the Twitter CEO tweeted on Sunday. However, it turns out that the social network biggie doesn’t treat everyone in the same way. It is secretly boosting the visibility of tweets from a select group of VIP users. Meanwhile, starting mid-April, Twitter’s For You recommendations will only be available for verified accounts.

According to Musk, this is the “only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle”. For the same reason, Twitter will also require verification for voting in polls. Plenty of changes are coming to the platform in the coming weeks.