Elon Musk’s Indian-origin advisor defends Twitter’s $8 charge, gives four reasons

Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has come under heavy criticism for introducing an $8 charge per month for blue tick verification. Despite stiff opposition, Musk has refused to reconsider the move and said that it is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls on Twitter. Now, his Indian-origin advisor Sriram Krishnan has also defended the subscription service while pointing to some flaws in the current system for verification.

Krishnan in a series of tweets today said that several of the critiques of the paid verification are logically inconsistent. He listed four reasons to back his claim that subscription will reduce impersonation on the site. He said using a CC/mobile checkout dramatically increases friction, and everyone caught impersonating will lose their money – something which Musk also said earlier.

The techie further said that there are lots of people who should be verified and aren’t and then there are those who should not be verified but are. He then said that 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),” he added.

Krishnan said the current model also has severe spam issues. He then asked people to check out any reply to Vitalik (@VitalikButerin) or Elon Musk (@elonmusk) and they will see lots of hacked blue check accounts. The techie said giving blue checks in $8 makes those attacks less valuable.

“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,” Krishnan said.

Musk’s advisor further wrote that like any launch he is sure there will be room for improvement and changes but he is excited for the first change in how verification works in social media in a very long time.

A day after Musk bought Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Krishnan announced that he was helping the Tesla CEO with the new company. He in a tweet on October 31 wrote: “Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I ( and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen.”

The Twitter CEO in a series of tweets on November 1 announced that blue tick will cost $8.