One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, says she will use her electorate allowance to pay subscription fees to Twitter Blue, while the United Australia party senator Ralph Babet says he is “happy to support Elon Musk” through the new fee-based model for the social media site.
As celebrities, politicians and journalists worldwide lost their verified “blue tick” icons on Twitter overnight, a small number of federal politicians have been revealed as having paid the company and its billionaire owner Musk to keep a new form of the checkmark on their profile.
“I saw no problem with giving him a few bucks a month to help support the guy with his other ventures,” Babet told Guardian Australia.
After Musk bought the site for a reported US$44bn, one of his major projects has been switching the verified tick from a free service to help prominent users safeguard against impersonation to a subscriber model which would allow any user to pay for the checkmark on their profile.
Twitter Blue costs A$13 a month, or $135 if paid annually. Subscribers were offered extra features including the ability to send tweets of up to 10,000 characters and post videos up to 15 minutes in length, the ability to edit tweets, higher rankings in search, and fewer ads.
The launch of the subscription service was beset by issues, including accounts using their bought ticks to impersonate brands and celebrities, and was delayed several times.
In the interim, some official government accounts around the world were given new grey checkmarks, while some news organisations and businesses were given gold checkmarks to note they were an “official organization”. For a period, both “legacy verified” and Twitter Blue subscribers had the same blue checkmark.
On Thursday, “legacy checkmarks” for many politicians, celebrities and journalists were removed, with those blue ticks only remaining for Blue subscribers.
Of the 227 politicians in federal parliament, only around a dozen appear to be subscribed to Twitter Blue; including opposition leader Peter Dutton, independent senator David Pocock, Nationals senator Matt Canavan, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, Labor MP Josh Burns, and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts. Twitter has included a note on those profiles to say “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue”.
Roberts said he decided to subscribe in order to post longer videos.
“The previous time limit restricted ability to communicate with constituents and fully give context on important matters. Small price to pay for accuracy and comms with voters,” he tweeted.
Guardian Australia understands several other politicians, including Burns, subscribed for the same goal of posting longer videos.
A spokesperson for Hanson said she subscribed because “she wants to ensure users can be assured of her communications’ authenticity”. They said Hanson believed Musk was “doing a great job” running Twitter.
“Senator Hanson plans to use her allowance to pay for the subscription,” the spokesperson said.
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Politicians have a broad allowance for office services and communications, which many use for expenses such as software, online ads and “e-material”, newspaper subscriptions, printed items and technology items like cameras or phones.
Babet said he would pay the subscription fee from his own pocket because he hoped to see his posts more prominently displayed in feeds, calling the cost “nothing”.
“I thought, ‘why not, it’ll help me push my content into the Twittersphere’,” he said.
“I’m happy to support Elon Musk as well, he spent billions buying the thing. I like the guy. I think he’s a great thing, not just for social media but humanity itself, making humanity an interplanetary species through SpaceX and going to Mars. I resonate with his entrepreneur attitude.”
It appears the entire Albanese government ministry has received the new grey checkmarks, which note that “this account is verified because it is a government or multilateral organization”. Previously, accounts such as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had the “legacy” blue tick.
Other political accounts, such as those run by the Senate, House of Representatives and numerous federal departments, also received grey ticks.
Government sources told Guardian Australia this process of switching from the blue tick to the grey one was done automatically by Twitter, and that government staff did not request it.
Guardian Australia sent questions to Twitter about the process. Twitter is understood to not currently have a communications team responding to press inquiries; our media request received an auto-reply message containing the poop emoji.
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