I don't know, but they do? It's a keepsake of sorts, and it drives adoption if you see that the people you respect are paying for the platform. Almost every platform with optional subscriptions does that - LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.
As for the rest of your comment, I don't understand why you want me to defend Elon. As noted, I think this was childish. But I don't think it deserves regulatory intervention of any sort.
Indeed. Apparently the name has been changed now to "Premium", but originally it was "Twitter Blue". The blue checkmark was the selling point.
> Almost every platform with optional subscriptions does that - LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.
TIL there's a Reddit Premium symbol in user profiles. However, the Reddit Premium symbol is not displayed in posts and comments, which makes it very different from Twitter's system.
> I don't understand why you want me to defend Elon.
I don't know, but they do? It's a keepsake of sorts, and it drives adoption if you see that the people you respect are paying for the platform. Almost every platform with optional subscriptions does that - LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.
As for the rest of your comment, I don't understand why you want me to defend Elon. As noted, I think this was childish. But I don't think it deserves regulatory intervention of any sort.